| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: Brie, an only child indeed, whose inheritance constituted three-
quarters of his fortune; for when retail-dealers grow rich, it is
generally not so much by trade as through some alliance between the
shop and rural thrift. A large proportion of the farmers, corn-
factors, dairy-keepers, and market-gardeners in the neighborhood of
Paris, dream of the glories of the desk for their daughters, and look
upon a shopkeeper, a jeweler, or a money-changer as a son-in-law after
their own heart, in preference to a notary or an attorney, whose
superior social position is a ground of suspicion; they are afraid of
being scorned in the future by these citizen bigwigs.
Madame Crevel, ugly, vulgar, and silly, had given her husband no
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: bold buccaneer type; and Fector, especially, had never in his
adventurous life used other weapons than slander and lies.
"That very evening they departed on a visit to Bamtz in Niclaus's
prau, which had been lying, emptied of her cargo of cocoanuts, for
a day or two under the canal bridge. They must have crossed the
bows of the anchored Sissie, and no doubt looked at her with
interest as the scene of their future exploit, the great haul, LE
GRAND COUP!
"Davidson's wife, to his great surprise, sulked with him for
several days before he left. I don't know whether it occurred to
him that, for all her angelic profile, she was a very stupidly
Within the Tides |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: session passes for different men?
"We have every respect for our friends the Americans. I
would even stretch a point rather than chance harming an
American; but you will admit that the evidence is all against
you. You were found in the very building where Drontoff
was known to stay while in Burgova. The young woman
whose mother keeps the place directed our officer to your
room, and you tried to escape, which I do not think that
an innocent American would have done.
"However, as I have said, I will go to almost any length
rather than chance a mistake in the case of one who from
The Mad King |
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 Cratylus by Plato: the place of things. It seems to be true, that whether applied to language
or to other branches of knowledge, the Darwinian theory, unless very
precisely defined, hardly escapes from being a truism. If by 'the natural
selection' of words or meanings of words or by the 'persistence and
survival of the fittest' the maintainer of the theory intends to affirm
nothing more than this--that the word 'fittest to survive' survives, he
adds not much to the knowledge of language. But if he means that the word
or the meaning of the word or some portion of the word which comes into use
or drops out of use is selected or rejected on the ground of economy or
parsimony or ease to the speaker or clearness or euphony or expressiveness,
or greater or less demand for it, or anything of this sort, he is affirming
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