| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: return, provided you have carried out the conditions of the bargain.
For that price you are to keep perfect silence as to what you have to
do this night. To you, Rosalie, I will secure ten thousand francs,
which will not be paid to you till your wedding day, and on condition
of your marrying Gorenflot; but, to get married, you must hold your
tongue. If not, no wedding gift!'
" 'Rosalie,' said Madame de Merret, 'come and brush my hair.'
"Her husband quietly walked up and down the room, keeping an eye on
the door, on the mason, and on his wife, but without any insulting
display of suspicion. Gorenflot could not help making some noise.
Madame de Merret seized a moment when he was unloading some bricks,
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: to become the mother institution of many and valuable children--is
one of the noblest, most right-minded, straightforward, and
practical conceptions that I have come across for some years.
We all know the difficulties of sanitary legislation. One looks
at them at times almost with despair. I have my own reasons, with
which I will not trouble this meeting, for looking on them with
more despair than ever: not on account of the government of the
time, or any possible government that could come to England, but
on account of the peculiar class of persons in whom the ownership
of the small houses has become more and more vested, and who are
becoming more and more, I had almost said, the arbiters of the
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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 Cavalry General by Xenophon: the foe. A desire will consume them to achieve some deed of glory and
renown. A capacity will be given them patiently to abide by the
resolution of their souls.
[21] {parelontas}, in reference to S. 18 above, {parelaunoi}, "form
squadron to the front."
[22] "To be this, he must be able as an orator as well as a man of
action." Cf. "Mem." II. ii. 11.
[23] Cf. Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade":
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die.
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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 Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: Like a thin thread of gold against the sky,
And hoisted sail, and strained the creaking gear,
And bade the pilot head her lustily
Against the nor'west gale, and all day long
Held on his way, and marked the rowers' time with measured song.
And when the faint Corinthian hills were red
Dropped anchor in a little sandy bay,
And with fresh boughs of olive crowned his head,
And brushed from cheek and throat the hoary spray,
And washed his limbs with oil, and from the hold
Brought out his linen tunic and his sandals brazen-soled,
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