| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: glass of ratafia to set you right."
"Faith! I've earned it," said Nanon; "most people would have broken
the bottle; but I'd sooner have broken my elbow holding it up high."
"Poor Nanon!" said Grandet, filling a glass.
"Did you hurt yourself?" asked Eugenie, looking kindly at her.
"No, I didn't fall; I threw myself back on my haunches."
"Well! as it is Eugenie's birthday," said Grandet, "I'll have the step
mended. You people don't know how to set your foot in the corner where
the wood is still firm."
Grandet took the candle, leaving his wife, daughter, and servant
without any other light than that from the hearth, where the flames
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: awe in his voice. "With the skin of a thern, the black hair of
a First Born and the muscles of a dozen Dators it was no
disgrace even for Xodar to acknowledge your supremacy.
A thing he could never do were you a Barsoomian," he added.
"You are travelling several laps ahead of me, my friend,"
I interrupted. "I glean that your name is Xodar, but whom,
pray, are the First Born, and what a Dator, and why, if you
were conquered by a Barsoomian, could you not acknowledge it?"
"The First Born of Barsoom," he explained, "are the race
of black men of which I am a Dator, or, as the lesser
Barsoomians would say, Prince. My race is the oldest
The Gods of Mars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: And then I watched the land intently. In that smooth water
and light wind it was impossible to feel the ship coming-to. No!
I could not feel her. And my second self was making now ready
to ship out and lower himself overboard. Perhaps he was gone
already . . . ?
The great black mass brooding over our very mastheads began to pivot away
from the ship's side silently. And now I forgot the secret stranger ready
to depart, and remembered only that I was a total stranger to the ship.
I did not know her. Would she do it? How was she to be handled?
I swung the mainyard and waited helplessly. She was perhaps stopped,
and her very fate hung in the balance, with the black mass
The Secret Sharer |
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 Phaedrus by Plato: reproaches, and demands his reward which the other refuses to pay. Too
late the beloved learns, after all his pains and disagreeables, that 'As
wolves love lambs so lovers love their loves.' (Compare Char.) Here is
the end; the 'other' or 'non-lover' part of the speech had better be
understood, for if in the censure of the lover Socrates has broken out in
verse, what will he not do in his praise of the non-lover? He has said his
say and is preparing to go away.
Phaedrus begs him to remain, at any rate until the heat of noon has passed;
he would like to have a little more conversation before they go. Socrates,
who has risen, recognizes the oracular sign which forbids him to depart
until he has done penance. His conscious has been awakened, and like
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