| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: postponed from the great alarm about the Chartists. There is not
the slightest danger of a revolution in England. The upper middle-
class, which on the continent is entirely with the people, the
professional and mercantile class, is here entirely conservative,
and without that class no great changes can ever be made. The Duc
de Montebello said of France, that he "knew there were lava streams
below, but he did not know the crust was so thin." Here, on the
contrary, the crust is very thick. And yet I can see in the most
conservative circles that a feeling is gaining ground that some
concessions must be made. An enlargement of the suffrage one hears
now often discussed as, perhaps, an approaching necessity.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: coming ashore somewhat stiffly, but with great dignity, refusing
our outstretched hands, and returning to possess herself of a bag
which had lain at her feet.
"Well, mother, here I be!" she announced with indifference;
but they stood and beamed in each other's faces.
"Lookin' pretty well for an old lady, ain't she?" said Mrs.
Todd's mother, turning away from her daughter to speak to me. She
was a delightful little person herself, with bright eyes and an
affectionate air of expectation like a child on a holiday. You
felt as if Mrs. Blackett were an old and dear friend before you let
go her cordial hand. We all started together up the hill.
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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 Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: gallinaceae, which were as large as a fowl, and whose flesh is better than
that of a pullet. But it was difficult, for they would not allow themselves
to be approached. After several fruitless attempts, which resulted in
nothing but scaring the grouse, the sailor said to the lad,--
"Decidedly, since we can't kill them on the wing, we must try to take
them with a line."
"Like a fish?" cried Herbert, much surprised at the proposal.
"Like a fish," replied the sailor quite seriously. Pencroft had found
among the grass half a dozen grouse nests, each having three or four eggs.
He took great care not to touch these nests, to which their proprietors
would not fail to return. It was around these that he meant to stretch his
The Mysterious Island |
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 Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: through every pore, after experiencing the keenest pleasures and the
fiercest delights of Mahomet's paradise, I see none but the most
terrible images. I have visions of my beloved Venice full of
children's faces, distorted, like those of the dying; of women covered
with dreadful wounds, torn and wailing; of men mangled and crushed by
the copper sides of crashing vessels. I begin to see Venice as she is,
shrouded in crape, stripped, robbed, destitute. Pale phantoms wander
through her streets!
"Already the Austrian soldiers are grinning over me, already my
visionary life is drifting into real life; whereas six months ago real
life was the bad dream, and the life of opium held love and bliss,
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