| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: years without it -- it opens up such new vistas,
doesn't it?
I can never think in the same way again about
even the most trivial things since I have learned
all about Protoplasm and -- and -- well, all thee
marvelous scientific things, you know.
Isn't Science DELIGHTFUL!
There's the Cosmos, for instance. It had always
been there, you know. But nobody knew much
about it until Scientists took it up in a serious way.
And now I, for one, feel that I couldn't do with-
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: Victoire. (I am sorry for her.) Then at six o'clock, he comes here,
reads steadily at the papers for four hours, and goes back at ten
o'clock. Daddy Croizeau says that he knows M. Denisart's motives, and
approves his conduct; and in his place, he would do the same. So I
know exactly what to expect. If ever I am Mme. Croizeau, I shall have
four hours to myself between six and ten o'clock.'
"Maxime looked through the directory, and found the following
reassuring item:
"DENISART,* retired custom-house officer, Rue de la Victoire.
"His uneasiness vanished.
"Gradually the Sieur Denisart and the Sieur Croizeau began to exchange
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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 Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: adorned itself for a last audience of one of its sovereigns.
"I was afraid that you would not come," she said to Rastignac.
"Madame," he said, in an unsteady voice, taking her speech as a
reproach, "I shall be the last to go, that is why I am here."
"Good," she said, and she took his hand. "You are perhaps the
only one I can trust here among all these. Oh, my friend, when
you love, love a woman whom you are sure that you can love
always. Never forsake a woman."
She took Rastignac's arm, and went towards a sofa in the card-
room.
"I want you to go to the Marquis," she said. "Jacques, my
Father Goriot |
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 Theaetetus by Plato: ourselves on revisiting a spot after a long interval: How many things have
happened since I last saw this! There is probably no impression ever
received by us of which we can venture to say that the vestiges are
altogether lost, or that we might not, under some circumstances, recover
it. A long-forgotten knowledge may be easily renewed and therefore is very
different from ignorance. Of the language learnt in childhood not a word
may be remembered, and yet, when a new beginning is made, the old habit
soon returns, the neglected organs come back into use, and the river of
speech finds out the dried-up channel.
e. 'Consciousness' is the most treacherous word which is employed in the
study of the mind, for it is used in many senses, and has rarely, if ever,
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