| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: Palamedes, Odysseus, Menestheus, Diomed, Castor and Polydeuces,
Machaon and Podaleirius, Antilochus, Aeneas and Achilles: of whom each
in his turn was honoured by the gods. And let none marvel that of
these the greater part, albeit well-pleasing to the gods, nevertheless
were subject to death--which is the way of nature,[4] but their fame
has grown--nor yet that their prime of manhood so far differed. The
lifetime of Cheiron sufficed for all his scholars; the fact being that
Zeus and Cheiron were brethren, sons of the same father but of
different mothers--Zeus of Rhea, and Cheiron of the nymph Nais;[5] and
so it is that, though older than all of them, he died not before he
had taught the youngest--to wit, the boy Achilles.[6]
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: Monsieur de Listomere tranquilly returned to the reading of his paper,
and presently said:--
"Ah! Madame de Mortsauf is dead; your poor brother has, no doubt, gone
to Clochegourde."
"Are you aware, monsieur," resumed the marquise, turning to Eugene,
"that what you have just said is a great impertinence?"
"If I did not know the strictness of your principles," he answered,
naively, "I should think that you wished either to give me ideas which
I deny myself, or else to tear a secret from me. But perhaps you are
only amusing yourself with me."
The marquise smiled. That smile annoyed Eugene.
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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 The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: clay, proved that the master of the house had a right to his Chouan
name, and that the pints galloped down either his own throat or that
of his friends. Two enormous jugs full of cider stood on the table.
Marie's attention, caught at first by the innumerable spider's-webs
which hung from the roof, was fixing itself on these pitchers when the
noise of fighting, growing more and more distinct, impelled her to
find a hiding-place, without waiting for the woman of the house, who,
however, appeared at that moment.
"Good-morning, Becaniere," said Marie, restraining a smile at the
appearance of a person who bore some resemblance to the heads which
architects attach to window-casings.
The Chouans |
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 Alcibiades I by Plato: understand, was going to the assembly to advise the Athenians about what he
did not know? Was not that said?
ALCIBIADES: Very true.
SOCRATES: Then, Alcibiades, the result may be expressed in the language of
Euripides. I think that you have heard all this 'from yourself, and not
from me'; nor did I say this, which you erroneously attribute to me, but
you yourself, and what you said was very true. For indeed, my dear fellow,
the design which you meditate of teaching what you do not know, and have
not taken any pains to learn, is downright insanity.
ALCIBIADES: But, Socrates, I think that the Athenians and the rest of the
Hellenes do not often advise as to the more just or unjust; for they see no
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