| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: labour."
He was one of the small band, as it seemed to me, who regard virtue,
not as a thing to be patiently endured,[8] but as a supreme enjoyment.
At any rate, to win the praise of mankind gave him a deeper pleasure
than the acquisition of wealth; and he preferred to display courage
far rather in conjunction with prudence than with unnecessary risks,
and to cultivate wisdom in action more than by verbal discussion.
[8] Or, "as a system of stoical endurance," "a kind of stoicism." But
we must not let Xenophon, who is a Socratic, talk of the Stoa. If
we knew certainly that the chapter was a much later production,
the language would be appropriate enough.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: brow on the way to his martyrdom," murmured he. " . . . Poor man!
. . . There was a heart in the steel blade, when none was found in all
France . . . "
The perfumers thought that the poor abbe was raving.
PARIS, January 183l.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Beauseant, Marquis and Comte de
Father Goriot
Ragon, M. and Mme.
Cesar Birotteau
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: easily, that I did not take the Greek women instead of
Shakespeare's; and instance, for chief ideal types of human beauty
and faith, the simple mother's and wife's heart of Andromache; the
divine, yet rejected wisdom of Cassandra; the playful kindness and
simple princess-life of happy Nausicaa; the housewifely calm of that
of Penelope, with its watch upon the sea; the ever patient,
fearless, hopelessly devoted piety of the sister, and daughter, in
Antigone; the bowing down of Iphigenia, lamb-like and silent; and
finally, the expectation of the resurrection, made clear to the soul
of the Greeks in the return from her grave of that Alcestis, who, to
save her husband, had passed calmly through the bitterness of death.
|
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 The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: complacently over his double chin. "I am glad there's somebody
over at your shop who thinks that the Secretary of State may be
trusted now and then."
The Assistant Commissioner had an amused smile.
"I was really thinking that it might be better at this stage for
Heat to be replaced by - "
"What! Heat? An ass - eh?" exclaimed the great man, with distinct
animosity.
"Not at all. Pray, Sir Ethelred, don't put that unjust
interpretation on my remarks."
"Then what? Too clever by half?"
The Secret Agent |
