| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: courage to draw sword and cut the knot, or the patience to unravel it.
He could not be the Beaumarchais, the Aretino, the Freron of his
epoch; he was not made of such stuff; he thought of nothing but his
one desire, the patent of nobility; for he saw clearly that for him
such a restoration meant a wealthy marriage, and, the title once
secured, chance and his good looks would do the rest. This was all his
plan, and Etienne Lousteau, who had confided so much to him, knew his
secret, knew how to deal a deathblow to the poet of Angouleme. That
very night, as Lucien and Merlin went to the Vaudeville, Etienne had
laid a terrible trap, into which an inexperienced boy could not but
fall.
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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 Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: to pull the house down to get it in, that is all that I can tell
you.'
Morris gazed at her in utter bewilderment. He passed his hand
over his forehead; he leaned against the wall like a man about to
faint. Then his tongue was loosed, and he overwhelmed the girl
with torrents of abuse. Such fire, such directness, such a choice
of ungentlemanly language, none had ever before suspected Morris
to possess; and the girl trembled and shrank before his fury.
'You shall not speak to Miss Hazeltine in that way,' said Gideon
sternly. 'It is what I will not suffer.'
'I shall speak to the girl as I like,' returned Morris, with a
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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 Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: asked Sir James.
"Certainly. I think there is a room here where we shall be quite
undisturbed."
He led the way, and the others followed him. They sat down, and
the doctor looked inquiringly at Sir James.
"Dr. Hall, I am very anxious to find a certain young lady for the
purpose of obtaining a statement from her. I have reason to
believe that she has been at one time or another in your
establishment at Bournemouth. I hope I am transgressing no
professional etiquette in questioning you on the subject?"
"I suppose it is a matter of testimony?"
Secret Adversary |
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 Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: The case of mind-cure lay so ready to my hand that I could not
resist the temptation of using it to bring these last truths home
to your attention, but I must content myself to-day with this
very brief indication. In a later lecture the relations of
religion both to science and to primitive thought will have to
receive much more explicit attention.
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APPENDIX
(See note [64].)
CASE I. "My own experience is this: I had long been ill, and
one of the first results of my illness, a dozen years before, had
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