| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Still worked and hankered after gain.
By day and night, to work my will,
It pounded like a powder mill;
And marking how the world went round
A theory of theft it found.
Here is the key to right and wrong:
STEAL LITTLE, BUT STEAL ALL DAY LONG;
And this invaluable plan
Marks what is called the Honest Man.
When first I served with Doctor Pill,
My hand was ever in the till.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: have no cause to blame the ardour of his friendship," but added, "if
your king be detected plotting, let him not think to find a friend in
me. No, not if he sends me a thousand letters." For my part, then, I
hold it praiseworthy that, by comparison with pleasing his fellow-
Hellenes, Agesilaus scorned such friendship. And this, too, among his
tenets I find admirable: the truer title to self-congratulation
belonged not to the millionaire, the master of many legions, but to
him rather, who, being himself a better man, commanded the allegience
of better followers.
[4] See "Hell." IV. i. 15; Plut. "Apophth. Lac." p. 777; Grote, "H.
G." x. 402.
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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 Ursula by Honore de Balzac: master was the news of the day.
Just as the heirs and the notary were crossing the square to go to the
post house the noise of the diligence rattling up to the office, which
was only a few steps from the church, at the top of the Grand'Rue,
made its usual racket.
"Goodness! I'm like you, Minoret; I forgot all about Desire," said
Zelie. "Let us go and see him get down. He is almost a lawyer; and his
interests are mixed up in this matter."
The arrival of the diligence is always an amusement, but when it comes
in late some unusual event is expected. The crowd now moved towards
the "Ducler."
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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 House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: take a tighter workman than I am to keep the spirits out of the
Seven Gables. Even if the Colonel would be quiet," he added,
muttering to himself, "my old grandfather, the wizard, will be pretty
sure to stick to the Pyncheons as long as their walls hold together."
"What's that you mutter to yourself, Matthew Maule?" asked
Scipio. "And what for do you look so black at me?"
"No matter, darky." said the carpenter. "Do you think nobody
is to look black but yourself? Go tell your master I'm coming;
and if you happen to see Mistress Alice, his daughter, give Matthew
Maule's humble respects to her. She has brought a fair face from
Italy,--fair, and gentle, and proud,--has that same Alice Pyncheon!"
House of Seven Gables |
