| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: it would rid us at once of that scourge of humanity, the amateur Pope.
As an Irish Protestant, I raise the cry of No Popery with hereditary
zest. We are overrun with Popes. From curates and governesses, who
may claim a sort of professional standing, to parents and uncles and
nurserymaids and school teachers and wiseacres generally, there are
scores of thousands of human insects groping through our darkness by
the feeble phosphorescence of their own tails, yet ready at a moment's
notice to reveal the will of God on every possible subject; to explain
how and why the universe was made (in my youth they added the exact
date) and the circumstances under which it will cease to exist; to lay
down precise rules of right and wrong conduct; to discriminate
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: Buisson, the philologist; Frank Wellington, the novelist; and
Will Maidenwood, the editor of Woman. Then there is my
second cousin, Jemima Broadwood, who made such a hit in Pinero's
comedy last winter, and Frau Lichtenfeld. Have you read
her?"
Imogen confessed her utter ignorance of Frau Lichtenfeld,
and Flavia went on.
"Well, she is a most remarkable person; one of those
advanced German women, a militant iconoclast, and this drive will
not be long enough to permit of my telling you her history. Such
a story! Her novels were the talk of all Germany when I was there
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: work had been got through more quickly than usual, and the clerks were
warming themselves before the fire preparatory to departure, it came
into Godeschal's head to construct and compose a Register
"architriclino-basochien," of the utmost antiquity, saved from the
fires of the Revolution, and derived through the procureur of the
Chatelet-Bordin, the immediate predecessor of Sauvaguest, the
attorney, from whom Desroches had bought his practice. The work, which
was highly approved by the other clerks, was begun by a search through
all the dealers in old paper for a register, made of paper with the
mark of the eighteenth century, duly bound in parchment, on which
should be the stamp of an order in council. Having found such a volume
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: had received about three thousand francs he invested them in some
first mortgage, the interest of which he drew himself and added to the
quarterly payments made to him by Fougeres. The painter was awaiting
the fortunate moment when his property thus laid by would give him the
imposing income of two thousand francs, to allow himself the otium cum
dignitate of the artist and paint pictures; but oh! what pictures!
true pictures! each a finished picture! chouette, Koxnoff, chocnosoff!
His future, his dreams of happiness, the superlative of his hopes--do
you know what it was? To enter the Institute and obtain the grade of
officer of the Legion of honor; to side down beside Schinner and Leon
de Lora, to reach the Academy before Bridau, to wear a rosette in his
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