| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: scoffed at as backstairs squabbles.
"This is peace at the cost of the future," said he.
One evening Juste and I were at work, sitting in perfect silence.
Marcas had just risen to toil at his copying, for he had refused our
assistance in spite of our most earnest entreaties. We had offered to
take it in turns to copy a batch of manuscript, so that he should do
but a third of his distasteful task; he had been quite angry, and we
had ceased to insist.
We heard the sound of gentlemanly boots in the passage, and raised our
heads, looking at each other. There was a tap at Marcas' door--he
never took the key out of the lock--and we heard the hero answer:
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: Her exclamations, and also her reticences on the subject of her sons,
were equal to the most lamenting verses in Jeremiah, and completely
deceived the sisters, who supposed their sinful brothers to be doomed
to perdition.
When the boys were eighteen years of age, the count gave them rooms in
his own part of the house, and sent them to study law under the
supervision of a solicitor, his former secretary. The two Maries knew
nothing therefore of fraternity, except by theory. At the time of the
marriage of the sisters, both brothers were practising in provincial
courts, and both were detained by important cases. Domestic life in
many families which might be expected to be intimate, united, 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 Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: it wended its course through the untraversed regions of the milky way.
The rest of the community, however, by no means sympathized with the
professor's sentiments, and the following month was a period of considerable
doubt and anxiety.
On the 1st of September the distance between Gallia and Jupiter was
precisely the same as the mean distance between the earth and the sun;
on the 16th, the distance was further reduced to 26,000,000 leagues.
The planet began to assume enormous dimensions, and it almost seemed
as if the comet had already been deflected from its elliptical orbit,
and was rushing on in a straight line towards the overwhelming luminary.
The more they contemplated the character of this gigantic planet,
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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 Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: the morning-light, to return to it again just before setting,
so Achilleus loses Briseis, and regains her only just before
his final struggle. In similar wise Herakles is parted from
Iole ("the violet one"), and Sigurd from Brynhild. In sullen
wrath the hero retires from the conflict, and his Myrmidons
are no longer seen on the battle-field, as the sun hides
behind the dark cloud and his rays no longer appear about him.
Yet toward the evening, as Briseis returns, he appears in his
might, clothed in the dazzling armour wrought for him by the
fire-god Hephaistos, and with his invincible spear slays the
great storm-cloud, which during his absence had wellnigh
Myths and Myth-Makers |
