| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: white eyes fixed in stupor, became to the wondering youth something
more than a man; he seemed a fantastic spirit inhabiting an unknown
sphere, and waking by its touch confused ideas within the soul. We can
no more define the moral phenomena of this species of fascination than
we can render in words the emotions excited in the heart of an exile
by a song which recalls his fatherland. The contempt which the old man
affected to pour upon the noblest efforts of art, his wealth, his
manners, the respectful deference shown to him by Porbus, his work
guarded so secretly,--a work of patient toil, a work no doubt of
genius, judging by the head of the Virgin which Poussin had so naively
admired, and which, beautiful beside even the Adam of Mabuse, betrayed
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from God The Invisible King by H. G. Wells: Think of the Dinosaurs and the expenditure of creative energy that
went to their differentiation and their wellnigh incredible physical
development. . . .
"To such a Divine Force as we postulate, the whole development and
perfecting of life on this planet, the whole production of man, may
seem little more than to any one of us would be the chipping out,
the cutting, the carving, and the polishing of a gem; and we should
feel as little remorse or pity for the scattered dust and fragments
as must the Creative Force of the immeasurably vast universe feel
for the DISJECTA MEMBRA of perfected life on this planet. . . ."
But thence he goes on to a curiously imperfect treatment of the God
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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 An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: d'Hauteserre, her relation, now her guardian, took the young heiress
to live in the country at her chateau of Cinq-Cygne. That brave
provincial gentleman, alarmed at the death of his brother, the Abbe
d'Hauteserre, who was shot in the open square as he was about to
escape in the dress of a peasant, was not in a position to defend the
interests of his ward. He had two sons in the army of the princes, and
every day, at the slightest unusual sound, he believed that the
municipals of Arcis were coming to arrest him. Laurence, proud of
having sustained a siege and of possessing the historic whiteness of
her swan-like ancestors, despised the prudent cowardice of the old man
who bent to the storm, and dreamed only of distinguishing herself. So,
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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 Adam Bede by George Eliot: lovers had never crossed his mind, and yet now, all his longing
suddenly went out towards that possibility. He had no more doubt
or hesitation as to his own wishes than the bird that flies
towards the opening through which the daylight gleams and the
breath of heaven enters.
The autumnal Sunday sunshine soothed him, but not by preparing him
with resignation to the disappointment if his mother--if he
himself--proved to be mistaken about Dinah. It soothed him by
gentle encouragement of his hopes. Her love was so like that calm
sunshine that they seemed to make one presence to him, and he
believed in them both alike. And Dinah was so bound up with the
Adam Bede |
