| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: had started from the gilt elephant supporting the chimney-clock,
examining all this luxury, and had ended by reading this woman's soul.
"If the Marquis d'Espard is mad about China, I see that you are not
less fond of its products," said Popinot, looking at the porcelain on
the chimney-piece. "But perhaps it was from M. le Marquis that you had
these charming Oriental pieces," and he pointed to some precious
trifles.
This irony, in very good taste, made Bianchon smile, and petrified
Rastignac, while the Marquise bit her thin lips.
"Instead of being the protector of a woman placed in a cruel dilemma--
an alternative between losing her fortune and her children, and being
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: boy, embarrassed to pieces, offered the untasted smelling-dish to Lin, to
me, helped himself, and finally thrust the plate at the girl, saying, in
his Texas idiom,
"Have butter."
He spoke in the shell voice of adolescence, and on "butter" cracked an
octave up into the treble. Miss Buckner was speechless, and could only
shake her head at the plate.
Mr. McLean, however, thought she was offended. "She wouldn't choose for
none," he said to the youth, with appalling calm. "Thank yu' most to
death."
"I guess," fluted poor Texas, in a dove falsetto, "it would go slicker
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: "The water is at the boiling point," I cried.
"Well, never mind, let it cool," my uncle replied.
The tunnel was filling with steam, whilst a stream was forming, which
by degrees wandered away into subterranean windings, and soon we had
the satisfaction of swallowing our first draught.
Could anything be more delicious than the sensation that our burning
intolerable thirst was passing away, and leaving us to enjoy comfort
and pleasure? But where was this water from? No matter. It was water;
and though still warm, it brought life back to the dying. I kept
drinking without stopping, and almost without tasting.
At last after a most delightful time of reviving energy, I cried,
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
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 The Art of War by Sun Tzu: from it in one of his proclamations; but the passage in question
may have been inserted later on, in order to prove the
genuineness of the work. We shall not be far out if we refer it
to the Northern Sung period [420-478 A.D.], or somewhat earlier.
6. LI WEI KUNG WEN TUI, in 3 sections. Written in the form
of a dialogue between T`ai Tsung and his great general Li Ching,
it is usually ascribed to the latter. Competent authorities
consider it a forgery, though the author was evidently well
versed in the art of war.
7. LI CHING PING FA (not to be confounded with the
foregoing) is a short treatise in 8 chapters, preserved in the
The Art of War |
