| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Aesop's Fables by Aesop: young I began with stealing little things, and brought them home
to Mother. Instead of rebuking and punishing me, she laughed and
said: "It will not be noticed." It is because of her that I am
here to-day."
"He is right, woman," said the Priest; "the Lord hath said:
"Train up a child in the way he should go; and
when he is old he will not depart therefrom."
The Man and His Two Wives
In the old days, when men were allowed to have many wives, a
middle-aged Man had one wife that was old and one that was young;
each loved him very much, and desired to see him like herself.
Aesop's Fables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: defiance.
Le Chapelier, whose manner was very grave, named him to Andre-Louis.
"This is M. Danton, a brother-lawyer, President of the Cordeliers,
of whom you will have heard."
Of course Andre-Louis had heard of him. Who had not, by then?
Looking at him now with interest, Andre-Louis wondered how it came
that all, or nearly all the leading innovators, were pock-marked.
Mirabeau, the journalist Desmoulins, the philanthropist Marat,
Robespierre the little lawyer from Arras, this formidable fellow
Danton, and several others he could call to mind all bore upon
them the scars of smallpox. Almost he began to wonder was there
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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 Republic by Plato: he is any one else. But in what follows he takes the person of Chryses,
and then he does all that he can to make us believe that the speaker is not
Homer, but the aged priest himself. And in this double form he has cast
the entire narrative of the events which occurred at Troy and in Ithaca and
throughout the Odyssey.
Yes.
And a narrative it remains both in the speeches which the poet recites from
time to time and in the intermediate passages?
Quite true.
But when the poet speaks in the person of another, may we not say that he
assimilates his style to that of the person who, as he informs you, is
The Republic |
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 Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: "Quite the reverse; we can communicate to them all the vices arising
in our own state of civilization."
She looked at me with an air of astonishment.
"But," I continued, "the first time I saw M. Martin, I admit, like
you, I did give vent to an exclamation of surprise. I found myself
next to an old soldier with the right leg amputated, who had come in
with me. His face had struck me. He had one of those heroic heads,
stamped with the seal of warfare, and on which the battles of Napoleon
are written. Besides, he had that frank, good-humored expression which
always impresses me favorably. He was without doubt one of those
troopers who are surprised at nothing, who find matter for laughter in
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