| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: already severed.
Some days later, none knew by what means, De Marsay had attained his
end; he had a seal and wax, exactly resembling the seal and wax
affixed to the letters sent to Mademoiselle Valdes from London; paper
similar to that which her correspondent used; moreover, all the
implements and stamps necessary to affix the French and English
postmarks.
He wrote the following letter, to which he gave all the appearances of
a letter sent from London:--
"MY DEAR PAQUITA,--I shall not try to paint to you in words the
passion with which you have inspired me. If, to my happiness, you
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: combined. To this it may be added that most important
discoveries demand a display of national power which the
Government of a small State is unable to make; in great nations
the Government entertains a greater number of general notions,
and is more completely disengaged from the routine of precedent
and the egotism of local prejudice; its designs are conceived
with more talent, and executed with more boldness.
In time of peace the well-being of small nations is
undoubtedly more general and more complete, but they are apt to
suffer more acutely from the calamities of war than those great
empires whose distant frontiers may for ages avert the presence
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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 Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: Galicia, was proved to have killed and eaten fourteen
children. A house had one day caught fire and burnt to the
ground, roasting one of the inmates, who was unable to escape.
The beggar passed by soon after, and, as he was suffering from
excessive hunger, could not resist the temptation of making a
meal off the charred body. From that moment he was tormented
by a craving for human flesh. He met a little orphan girl,
about nine years old, and giving her a pinchbeck ring told her
to seek for others like it under a tree in the neighbouring
wood. She was slain, carried to the beggar's hovel, and eaten.
In the course of three years thirteen other children
Myths and Myth-Makers |
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 Philebus by Plato: think further that he has explained the feeling of the spectator in comedy
sufficiently by a theory which only applies to comedy in so far as in
comedy we laugh at the conceit or weakness of others. He has certainly
given a very partial explanation of the ridiculous.) Having shown how
sorrow, anger, envy are feelings of a mixed nature, I will reserve the
consideration of the remainder for another occasion.
Next follow the unmixed pleasures; which, unlike the philosophers of whom I
was speaking, I believe to be real. These unmixed pleasures are: (1) The
pleasures derived from beauty of form, colour, sound, smell, which are
absolutely pure; and in general those which are unalloyed with pain: (2)
The pleasures derived from the acquisition of knowledge, which in
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