| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: Chartes was entered in duplicate on the parchment of her brain.
She knew all the genealogies of every noble house in
Europe--princes, dukes, and counts--and could put her hand on the
last descendants of Charlemagne in the direct line. No
usurpation of title could escape the Princesse de
Blamont-Chauvry.
Young men who wished to stand well at Court, ambitious men, and
young married women paid her assiduous homage. Her salon set the
tone of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. The words of this Talleyrand
in petticoats were taken as final decrees. People came to
consult her on questions of etiquette or usages, or to take
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: other Athenians.' Suppose now I ask, why I rather than anybody else? they
will justly retort upon me that I above all other men have acknowledged the
agreement. 'There is clear proof,' they will say, 'Socrates, that we and
the city were not displeasing to you. Of all Athenians you have been the
most constant resident in the city, which, as you never leave, you may be
supposed to love (compare Phaedr.). For you never went out of the city
either to see the games, except once when you went to the Isthmus, or to
any other place unless when you were on military service; nor did you
travel as other men do. Nor had you any curiosity to know other states or
their laws: your affections did not go beyond us and our state; we were
your especial favourites, and you acquiesced in our government of you; and
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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 Lesson of the Master by Henry James: there was no doubt of that, for something he had done, or perhaps
even hadn't done - the young man couldn't remember which - some
years before in India. The servant went away, leaving the glass
doors open into the gallery, and Paul Overt remained at the head of
the wide double staircase, saying to himself that the place was
sweet and promised a pleasant visit, while he leaned on the
balustrade of fine old ironwork which, like all the other details,
was of the same period as the house. It all went together and
spoke in one voice - a rich English voice of the early part of the
eighteenth century. It might have been church-time on a summer's
day in the reign of Queen Anne; the stillness was too perfect to be
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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 Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: ing sheep-walk, a voice light and soaring, like a
lark's, but with a melancholy human note, over our
fields that hear only the song of birds. And I
should be startled myself. Ah! He was different:
innocent of heart, and full of good will, which no-
body wanted, this castaway, that, like a man trans-
planted into another planet, was separated by an
immense space from his past and by an immense
ignorance from his future. His quick, fervent ut-
terance positively shocked everybody. 'An excit-
able devil,' they called him. One evening, in the
Amy Foster |
