| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: perfumed as a boudoir, when compared with the adjoining dining-
room.
The paneled walls of that apartment were once painted some color,
now a matter of conjecture, for the surface is incrusted with
accumulated layers of grimy deposit, which cover it with
fantastic outlines. A collection of dim-ribbed glass decanters,
metal discs with a satin sheen on them, and piles of blue-edged
earthenware plates of Touraine ware cover the sticky surfaces of
the sideboards that line the room. In a corner stands a box
containing a set of numbered pigeon-holes, in which the lodgers'
table napkins, more or less soiled and stained with wine, are
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time,
as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the
Generall Good of the Colonie; unto which we promise
all due Submission and Obedience.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names
at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Raigne of our
Sovereigne Lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland,
the eighteenth, and of Scotland, the fiftie-fourth,
Anno. Domini, 1620.
Mr. John Carver Mr. Stephen Hopkins
Mr. William Bradford Digery Priest
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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 Little Britain by Washington Irving: auspices of the apothecary; it is needless to say that the latter
was the most flourishing. I have passed an evening or two at
each, and have acquired much valuable information, as to the
best mode of being buried, the comparative merits of
churchyards, together with divers hints on the subject of
patent-iron coffins. I have heard the question discussed in all
its bearings as to the legality of prohibiting the latter on
account of their durability. The feuds occasioned by these
societies have happily died of late; but they were for a long
time prevailing themes of controversy, the people of Little
Britain being extremely solicitous of funereal honors and of
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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 Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: were sitting on a bench in a shady linden alley. Mary's white
muslin dress suited her particularly well, and she seemed the
personification of innocence and love as she sat, now bending her
head, now gazing up at the very tall and handsome man who was
speaking to her with particular tenderness and self-restraint, as
if he feared by word or gesture to offend or sully her angelic
purity.
Kasatsky belonged to those men of the eighteen-forties (they are
now no longer to be found) who while deliberately and without any
conscientious scruples condoning impurity in themselves, required
ideal and angelic purity in their women, regarded all unmarried
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