| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: reasonably deem wise, rather than such a one as myself, who, from the
moment I began to understand things spoken,[32] have never omitted to
inquire into and learn every good thing in my power? And that I
laboured not in vain, what more conclusive evidence than the fact that
so many of my fellow-citizens who make virtue their pursuit, and many
strangers also, choose my society in preference to that of others?[33]
And how are we to explain the fact that though all know well enough
that I am wholly unable to repay them in money, so many are eager to
present me with some gift?[34] And what do you make of this--while no
one dreams of dunning me for benefits conferred, hosts of people
acknowledge debts of gratitude to myself? And what of this, that
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: some chance," said Sir James. "She might have got some power
over him in time, and she was always uneasy about the estate.
She had wonderfully good notions about such things. But now
Casaubon takes her up entirely. Celia complains a good deal.
We can hardly get her to dine with us, since he had that fit."
Sir James ended with a look of pitying disgust, and Mrs. Cadwallader
shrugged her shoulders as much as to say that SHE was not likely
to see anything new in that direction.
"Poor Casaubon!" the Rector said. "That was a nasty attack.
I thought he looked shattered the other day at the Archdeacon's."
"In point of fact," resumed Sir James, not choosing to dwell on
Middlemarch |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: "Poor Adam! I ask myself if I have not sometimes pained him," she
said.
"You have made him very happy," said Thaddeus; "you ought to be easy
on that score, for you have shown every indulgence for him."
"My loss would be irreparable."
"But, dear, you judged him justly."
"I was never blind to his faults," she said, "but I loved him as a
wife should love her husband."
"Then you ought, in case you lose him," said Thaddeus, in a voice
which Clementine had never heard him use, "to grieve for him less than
if you lost a man who was your pride, your love, and all your life,--
|
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 Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: he murmured a faquir's blessing in his ear, and asked him how his
second wife did. The man spun round, and, as he looked into the
eyes of "Estreeken Sahib," his jaw dropped. You must remember that
before Strickland was married, he was, as I have told you already, a
power among natives. Strickland whispered a rather coarse
vernacular proverb to the effect that he was abreast of all that was
going on, and went into the Court armed with a gut trainer's-whip.
The Mohammedan was the first witness and Strickland beamed upon him
from the back of the Court. The man moistened his lips with his
tongue and, in his abject fear of "Estreeken Sahib" the faquir, went
back on every detail of his evidence--said he was a poor man and God
|
