| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: said.
'And do you not understand, my fair foe,' said I, 'that even if all
were as you say - even if you had thought my travesty were becoming
- I should be only the more anxious, for my sake, for my country's
sake, and for the sake of your kindness, that you should see him
whom you have helped as God meant him to be seen? that you should
have something to remember him by at least more characteristic than
a misfitting sulphur-yellow suit, and half a week's beard?'
'You think a great deal too much of clothes,' she said. 'I am not
that kind of girl.'
'And I am afraid I am that kind of man,' said I. 'But do not think
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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 Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: they? Besides, that is only a man; and the being who came first from
the hand of God must needs have had something divine about him which
is lacking here. Mabuse said so himself with vexation in his sober
moments."
Poussin looked alternately at the old man and at Porbus with uneasy
curiosity. He turned to the latter as if to ask the name of their
host, but the painter laid a finger on his lips with an air of
mystery, and the young man, keenly interested, kept silence, hoping
that sooner or later some word of the conversation might enable him to
guess the name of the old man, whose wealth and genius were
sufficiently attested by the respect which Porbus showed him, and by
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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 Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: these basins in the heart of old Paris would have offered precious
scenes and tones of color to painters. What a forest of crossbeams
supported the mills with their huge sails and their wheels! What
strange effects were produced by the piles or props driven into the
water to project the upper floors of the houses above the stream!
Unfortunately, the art of genre painting did not exist in those days,
and that of engraving was in its infancy. We have therefore lost that
curious spectacle, still offered, though in miniature, by certain
provincial towns, where the rivers are overhung with wooden houses,
and where, as at Vendome, the basins, full of water grasses, are
enclosed by immense iron railings, to isolate each proprietor's share
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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 Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: pass that lay in front of me. I set my hat hard on my head, clenched
my teeth, and went right before me up the face of the sand-wreath. It
made a hard climb, being steep, and the sand like water underfoot. But
I caught hold at last by the long bent-grass on the brae-top, and
pulled myself to a good footing. The same moment men stirred and stood
up here and there, six or seven of them, ragged-like knaves, each with
a dagger in his hand. The fair truth is, I shut my eyes and prayed.
When I opened them again, the rogues were crept the least thing nearer
without speech or hurry. Every eye was upon mine, which struck me with
a strange sensation of their brightness, and of the fear with which
they continued to approach me. I held out my hands empty; whereupon
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