| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: like the Trojan war or the legend of Arthur, which we are unable to
penetrate. In the age of Cicero, and still more in that of Diogenes
Laertius and Appuleius, many other legends had gathered around the
personality of Plato,--more voyages, more journeys to visit tyrants and
Pythagorean philosophers. But if, as we agree with Karsten in supposing,
they are the forgery of some rhetorician or sophist, we cannot agree with
him in also supposing that they are of any historical value, the rather as
there is no early independent testimony by which they are supported or with
which they can be compared.
IV. There is another subject to which I must briefly call attention, lest
I should seem to have overlooked it. Dr. Henry Jackson, of Trinity
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: which, seen from behind, showed the white, slender, flexible neck and
the fine shoulders of a well-developed figure, did not appeal to him.
He did not raise Esther, he did not seem to hear the agonizing gasps
which showed that she was returning to life; a fearful sob and a
terrifying glance from the girl were needed before he condescended to
lift her, and he carried her to the bed with an ease that revealed
enormous strength.
"Lucien!" she murmured.
"Love is there, the woman is not far behind," said the priest with
some bitterness.
The victim of Parisian depravity then observed the dress worn by her
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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 Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: Court fought but the other day with stilettos on the bench at
Cincinnati. You should read the little book of one of my
friends: _Le Touriste dans le Far-West_; you will see it all
there in good French." At last, incensed by days of such
discussion, I undertook to prove to him the contrary, and put
the affair in the hands of my late father's lawyer. From him I
had the gratification of hearing, after a due interval, that my
debtor was dead of the yellow fever in Key West, and had left
his affairs in some confusion. I suppress his name; for though
he treated me with cruel nonchalance, it is probable he meant
to deal fairly in the end.
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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 The Pupil by Henry James: If however the deficiencies of his own wardrobe were a chapter by
themselves he didn't like his little charge to look too poor.
Later he used to say "Well, if we're poor, why, after all,
shouldn't we look it?" and he consoled himself with thinking there
was something rather elderly and gentlemanly in Morgan's disrepair
- it differed from the untidiness of the urchin who plays and
spoils his things. He could trace perfectly the degrees by which,
in proportion as her little son confined himself to his tutor for
society, Mrs. Moreen shrewdly forbore to renew his garments. She
did nothing that didn't show, neglected him because he escaped
notice, and then, as he illustrated this clever policy, discouraged
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