| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frances Waldeaux by Rebecca Davis: cloak, which he placed upon a chair. One of the men
tossed his cape to him, with a familiar nod, and George
laid it aside and sat down at the back of the box.
His mother leaned forward, watching. That woman had put
her son in the place of an inferior--an attendant.
The great orchestra shook the house with a final crash,
and the curtain rose upon the Venetian plaza. Every face
in the audience was turned attentive toward it. But Mrs.
Waldeaux saw only Lisa.
A strange change came upon her as she watched her son's
wife. For months she had struggled feebly against her
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: the utmost promptitude and devotion. Three months hence Catherine
Curieux will be sent to you."
"Where is she?" asked Veronique.
"She is now in the hospital Saint-Louis," replied the old man; "they
are awaiting her recovery before sending her from Paris."
"Ah! is the poor girl ill?"
"You will find all necessary information in these papers," said
Grossetete, giving Veronique a packet.
Madame Graslin returned to her guests to conduct them into the
magnificent dining-room on the ground-floor. She sat at table, but did
not herself take part in the dinner; since her arrival at Montegnac
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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 Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: the table, eleven o'clock was striking and the room was empty. The
silence of night enabled the young surgeons to hear vaguely the noise
their horses made in eating their provender, and the murmur of the
waters of the Rhine, together with those indefinable sounds which
always enliven an inn when filled with persons preparing to go to bed.
Doors and windows are opened and shut, voices murmur vague words, and
a few interpellations echo along the passages.
At this moment of silence and tumult the two Frenchmen and their
landlord, who was boasting of Andernach, his inn, his cookery, the
Rhine wines, the Republican army, and his wife, were all three
listening with a sort of interest to the hoarse cries of sailors in a
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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 The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: of The Ring, and also, for musicians of sufficiently fine
judgment, by the evidence of the scores; of which more anon. As a
matter of fact Wagner began, as I have said, with Siegfried's
Death. Then, wanting to develop the idea of Siegfried as
neoProtestant, he went on to The Young Siegfried. As a Protestant
cannot be dramatically projected without a pontifical antagonist.
The Young Siegfried led to The Valkyries, and that again to its
preface The Rhine Gold (the preface is always written after the
book is finished). Finally, of course, the whole was revised. The
revision, if carried out strictly, would have involved the cuttmg
out of Siegfried's Death, now become inconsistent and
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