| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: rarely, if ever, recalled by any voluntary effort, at least after
any time has elapsed. Thirdly, that there is a disinclination to
record the circumstances, and a sense of incapacity to reproduce
the state of mind in words. Fourthly, I have often felt that the
duplicate condition had not only occurred once before, but that it
was familiar and, as it seemed, habitual. Lastly, I have had the
same convictions in my dreams.
How do I account for it? - Why, there are several ways that I can
mention, and you may take your choice. The first is that which the
young lady hinted at; - that these flashes are sudden recollections
of a previous existence. I don't believe that; for I remember a
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: Miss La Heu; but this injury it was my intention to set right; my
confession to the girl behind the counter was merely delayed. As I sat
with Shakespeare open in my lap, I added to my store of reasoning one
little new straw of argument in favor of my opinion that John Mayrant was
no longer at ease or happy about his love affair. I had never before met
any young man in whose manner nature was so finely tempered with good
bringing-up; forwardness and shyness were alike absent from him, and his
bearing had a sort of polished unconsciousness as far removed from raw
diffidence as it was from raw conceit; it was altogether a rare and
charming address in a youth of such true youthfulness, but it had failed
him upon two occasions which I have already mentioned. Both times that he
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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 Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: Where are fulfilled all others and my own.
There perfect is, and ripened, and complete,
Every desire; within that one alone
Is every part where it has always been;
For it is not in space, nor turns on poles,
And unto it our stairway reaches up,
Whence thus from out thy sight it steals away.
Up to that height the Patriarch Jacob saw it
Extending its supernal part, what time
So thronged with angels it appeared to him.
But to ascend it now no one uplifts
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
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 Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: those foremost in the world for rank, science, literature, or all
which adorns society is great, but there is a certain yearning
toward those whose habits, education, and modes of thought are the
same as our own, which I never can get over. In the full tide of
conversation I often stop and think, "I may unconsciously be jarring
the prejudices or preconceived notions of these people upon a
thousand points; for how differently have I been trained from these
women of high rank, and men, too, with whom I am now thrown." Upon
all topics we are accustomed to think, perhaps, with more latitude,
religion, politics, morals, everything. I like the English
extremely, even more than I expected, and yet happy am I to think
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