| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: the vegetation splendid, and the residents, in harmony with nature,
are friendly souls, good fellows, and devoid of Puritanism, though
two-thirds of the population are Calvinists. Under such conditions,
though there are the usual disadvantages of life in a small town, and
each one lives under the officious eye which makes private life almost
a public concern, on the other hand, the spirit of township--a sort of
patriotism, which cannot indeed take the place of a love of home--
flourishes triumphantly.
Thus the town of Sancerre is exceedingly proud of having given birth
to one of the glories of modern medicine, Horace Bianchon, and to an
author of secondary rank, Etienne Lousteau, one of our most successful
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: And though the silver bird amid his shield
Were armed gules; yet he the champion knows.
And says, "Here greatest peril is, heavens yield
Strength to my courage, fortune to my blows,
That fair Armida her revenge may see,
Help, Macon, for his arms I vow to thee."
CXIV
Thus prayed he, but all his vows were vain,
Mahound was deaf, or slept in heavens above,
And as a lion strikes him with his train,
His native wrath to quicken and to move,
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: they came over in, and give them arms and ammunition proportioned
to their defence, they would go over to the main, and seek their
fortunes, and so deliver them from the trouble of supplying them
with any other provisions.
The Spaniards were glad enough to get rid of them, but very
honestly represented to them the certain destruction they were
running into; told them they had suffered such hardships upon that
very spot, that they could, without any spirit of prophecy, tell
them they would be starved or murdered, and bade them consider of
it. The men replied audaciously, they should be starved if they
stayed here, for they could not work, and would not work, and they
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: for a while, dreaming of corners in this and that. But at last
he reverted to Wimblehurst again.
"You got to be in London when these things are in hand. Down
here--!
"Jee-rusalem!" he cried. "Why did I plant myself here?
Everything's done. The game's over. Here's Lord Eastry, and
he's got everything, except what his lawyers get, and before you
get any more change this way you'll have to dynamite him--and
them. HE doesn't want anything more to happen. Why should he?
Any chance 'ud be a loss to him. He wants everything to burble
along and burble along and go on as it's going for the next ten
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