| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: found himself a father, and, after some years of hard privation, he
embarks in some little draper's business, hires a shop. If neither
sickness nor vice blocks his way--if he has prospered--there is the
sketch of this normal life.
And, in the first place, hail to that king of Parisian activity, to
whom time and space give way. Yes, hail to that being, composed of
saltpetre and gas, who makes children for France during his laborious
nights, and in the day multiplies his personality for the service,
glory, and pleasure of his fellow-citizens. This man solves the
problem of sufficing at once to his amiable wife, to his hearth, to
the /Constitutionnel/, to his office, to the National Guard, to the
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: attack. And he took out my share of profits, and sent them
in my name to the Leper Fund. I could not bear after that to
take from him any of that class of books which I have always
given him. Tell him the same terms will do. Clark to print,
uniform with the others.
I have lost all the days since this letter began re-handling
Chapter IV. of the Samoa racket. I do not go in for
literature; address myself to sensible people rather than to
sensitive. And, indeed, it is a kind of journalism, I have
no right to dally; if it is to help, it must come soon. In
two months from now it shall be done, and should be published
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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 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: were generally acquiesc'd in; but if, for example, it should happen
that two or three young women were found to be equally proper
for the young man, the lot was then recurred to. I objected,
if the matches are not made by the mutual choice of the parties,
some of them may chance to be very unhappy. "And so they may,"
answer'd my informer, "if you let the parties chuse for themselves;"
which, indeed, I could not deny.
Being returned to Philadelphia, I found the association went
on swimmingly, the inhabitants that were not Quakers having pretty
generally come into it, formed themselves into companies, and chose
their captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, according to the new law.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
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 Agesilaus by Xenophon: too, which overtops all else, he was cherishing fond hopes to dissolve
that empire which in former days had dared to march on Hellas;--at
such a moment suffered himself not to be overmastered by these
promptings, but on receipt of a summons of the home authorities to
come to the assistance of the fatherland, obeyed the mandate of his
state as readily[15] as though he stood confronted face to face with
the Five in the hall of ephors; and thus gave clear proof that he
would not accept the whole earth in exchange for the land of his
fathers, nor newly-acquired in place of ancient friends, nor base
gains ingloriously purchased rather than the perilous pursuit of
honour and uprightness.[16]
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