| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: 4000 cells, and with it urged a stream of sparks from terminal to
terminal, when separated from each other by a measurable space of air.
The memoir on the 'Electricity of the Voltaic Pile,' published in
1834, appears to have produced but little impression upon the
supporters of the contact theory. These indeed were men of too
great intellectual weight and insight lightly to take up, or lightly
to abandon a theory. Faraday therefore resumed the attack in a
paper, communicated to the Royal Society on the 6th of February,
1840. In this paper he hampered his antagonists by a crowd of
adverse experiments. He hung difficulty after difficulty about the
neck of the contact theory, until in its efforts to escape from his
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: Tiphaine. All parties wished to study the Rogrons before admitting
them. It was difficult, of course, to keep out merchants of the rue
Saint-Denis, originally from Provins, who had returned to the town to
spend their fortunes. Still, the object of all society is to
amalgamate persons of equal wealth, education, manners, customs,
accomplishments, and character. Now the Guepins, Guenees, and
Julliards had a better position among the bourgeoisie than the
Rogrons, whose father had been held in contempt on account of his
private life, and his conduct in the matter of the Auffray property,--
the facts of which were known to the notary Auffray, Madame Galardon's
son-in-law.
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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 Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: Are kisses that she pours upon my mouth.
Ah, never any more when spring like fire
Will flicker in the newly opened leaves,
Shall I steal forth to seek for solitude
Beyond the lure of light Alcaeus' lyre,
Beyond the sob that stilled Erinna's voice.
Ah, never with a throat that aches with song,
Beneath the white uncaring sky of spring,
Shall I go forth to hide awhile from Love
The quiver and the crying of my heart.
Still I remember how I strove to flee
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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 Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: wasn't at home all the day it happened--which was true, as I
know--but Willie couldn't git a word in, an' then Judge Dyer went
on layin' down the law. An' all to onct he happened to look down
the long room. An' if ever any man turned to stone he was thet
man.
"Nat'rully I looked back to see what hed acted so powerful
strange on the judge. An' there, half-way up the room, in the
middle of the wide aisle, stood Lassiter! All white an' black he
looked, an' I can't think of anythin' he resembled, onless it's
death. Venters made thet same room some still an' chilly when he
called Tull; but this was different. I give my word, Miss
Riders of the Purple Sage |
