| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: with, when he runs away from his lessons!"
"You ca'n't guess what my present is!" said Uggug, who had taken the
butter-dish from the table, and was standing behind her, with a wicked
leer on his face.
"No, I ca'n't guess," Sylvie said without looking up. She was still
examining the Professor's pincushion.
"It's this!" cried the bad boy, exultingly, as he emptied the dish over
her, and then, with a grin of delight at his own cleverness, looked
round for applause.
Sylvie coloured crimson, as she shook off the butter from her frock:
but she kept her lips tight shut, and walked away to the window, where
Sylvie and Bruno |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: [7] {analambanetai}, "come to the poise" (Morgan). For
{apostrephesthai} see ix.6; tech. "caracole."
It is also well to ascertain by experience if the horse you propose to
purchase will show equal docility in response to the whip. Every one
knows what a useless thing a servant is, or a body of troops, that
will not obey. A disobedient horse is not only useless, but may easily
play the part of an arrant traitor.
And since it is assumed that the horse to be purchased is intended for
war, we must widen our test to include everything which war itself can
bring to the proof: such as leaping ditches, scrambling over walls,
scaling up and springing off high banks. We must test his paces by
On Horsemanship |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: Baron de Nucingen on the 8th so as to be sure of having your payments
ready in advance of the 15th. If there should be any hitch, how could
you scrape the money together if you have only one day to do it in?"
"I will see to it, wife," said Cesar, pressing his wife's hand and his
daughter's, adding, "Ah, my dear white lambs, I have given you a sad
New Year's gift!"
The two women, unable to see him in the obscurity of the hackney
coach, felt his tears falling hot upon their hands.
"Be hopeful, dear friend," said Constance.
"All will go well, papa; Monsieur Anselme Popinot told me he would
shed his blood for you."
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
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 A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: But if we ever meet in the Elysian Fields--where I cannot depict
him to myself otherwise than attended in the distance by his
flock of geese (birds sacred to Jupiter)--and he addresses me in
the stillness of that passionless region, neither light nor
darkness, neither sound nor silence, and heaving endlessly with
billowy mists from the impalpable multitudes of the swarming
dead, I think I know what answer to make.
I would say, after listening courteously to the unvibrating tone
of his measured remonstrances, which should not disturb, of
course, the solemn eternity of stillness in the least--I would
say something like this:
A Personal Record |
