| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: [20] Reading, with Lenz, {ekaterois}, or if, as C. Gesner conj., {e
ekatera}, transl. "or either separately."
[21] Or, "for the purpose of felling wood and stopping up gaps where
necessary."
III
There are two breeds of sporting dogs: the Castorian and the fox-
like.[1] The former get their name from Castor, in memory of the
delight he took in the business of the chase, for which he kept this
breed by preference.[2] The other breed is literally foxy, being the
progeny originally of the dog and the fox, whose natures have in the
course of ages become blent.[3]
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: How well you judged your vocation! You seem to me born for the part of
mother rather than of lover, exactly as the reverse is true of me.
There are women capable of neither, hard-favored or silly women. A
good mother and a passionately loving wife have this in common, that
they both need intelligence and discretion ever at hand, and an
unfailing command of every womanly art and grace. Oh! I watched you
well; need I add, sly puss, that I admired you too! Your children will
be happy, but not spoilt, with your tenderness lapping them round and
the clear light of your reason playing softly on them.
Tell Louis the truth about my going away, but find some decent excuse
for your father-in-law, who seems to act as steward for 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 Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: enough for the first paralysing effect of this discovery to pass
away before a resolute determination to come out victorious from
the ghastly struggle with that armed lunatic. They were leisurely
enough for Mr Verloc to elaborate a plan of defence involving a
dash behind the table, and the felling of the woman to the ground
with a heavy wooden chair. But they were not leisurely enough to
allow Mr Verloc the time to move either hand or foot. The knife
was already planted in his breast. It met no resistance on its
way. Hazard has such accuracies. Into that plunging blow,
delivered over the side of the couch, Mrs Verloc had put all the
inheritance of her immemorial and obscure descent, the simple
The Secret Agent |
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 War and the Future by H. G. Wells: perhaps as big as a destroyer and more heavily armed and
equipped. It will swim over and through the soil at a pace of
ten or twelve miles an hour. In front of it will be corn, land,
neat woods, orchards, pasture, gardens, villages and towns. It
will advance upon its belly with a swaying motion, devouring the
ground beneath it. Behind it masses of soil and rock, lumps of
turf, splintered wood, bits of houses, occasional streaks of red,
will drop from its track, and it will leave a wake, six or seven
times as wide as a high road, from which all soil, all
cultivation, all semblance to cultivated or cultivatable land
will have disappeared. It will not even be a track of soil. It
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