| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: But when he saw the wonder of the hilt,
How curiously and strangely chased, he smote
His palms together, and he cried aloud:
'And if indeed I cast the brand away,
Surely a precious thing, one worthy note,
Should thus be lost for ever from the earth,
Which might have pleased the eyes of many men.
What good should follow this, if this were done?
What harm, undone? Deep harm to disobey,
Seeing obedience is the bond of rule.
Were it well to obey then, if a king demand
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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 Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: usurers; she pockets "dots"; she ruins orphans; she inspires, possibly
she commits, crimes, but--"
Never had the two men, whom d'Arthez was chiefly addressing, listened
to such plain talk. At that BUT the whole table was startled, every
one paused, fork in air, their eyes fixed alternately on the brave
author and on the assailants of the princess, awaiting the conclusion
of that horrible silence.
"But," said d'Arthez, with sarcastic airiness, "Madame la Princesse de
Cadignan has one advantage over men: when they have put themselves in
danger for her sake, she saves them, and says no harm of any one.
Among the multitude, why shouldn't there be one woman who amuses
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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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: wished them to be paid. But the Ancients detested him owing to his
popularity; for they dreaded the risk of a master, and through terror
of monarchy strove to weaken whatever contributed to it or might re-
establish it.
Outside the fortification there were people of another race and of
unknown origin, all hunters of the porcupine, and eaters of shell-fish
and serpents. They used to go into caves to catch hyenas alive, and
amuse themselves by making them run in the evening on the sands of
Megara between the stelae of the tombs. Their huts, which were made of
mud and wrack, hung on the cliff like swallows' nests. There they
lived, without government and without gods, pell-mell, completely
Salammbo |
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 $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: filled his heart with rapture, he knew not how to contain himself;
to go where they were would expose him to ridicule; to continue
where he was, with such an object before him, without being allowed
an explanation in that trying hour, would be to the great injury
of his mental as well as of his physical powers; and, in the name
of high heaven, what must he do? Finally, he resolved to contain
himself as well as he conveniently could, until the scene was over,
and then he would plant himself at the door, to arrest Ambulinia from
the hands of the insolent Elfonzo, and thus make for himself a more
prosperous field of immortality than ever was decreed by Omnipotence,
or ever pencil drew or artist imagined. Accordingly he made
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