| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: the publick, because they soon would become breeders themselves:
And besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people
might be apt to censure such a practice, (although indeed very
unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty, which, I confess,
hath always been with me the strongest objection against any
project, how well soever intended.
But in order to justify my friend, he confessed, that this
expedient was put into his head by the famous Salmanaazor, a
native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London,
above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend, that
in his country, when any young person happened to be put to
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: poor boy. I do not know his past life, but I feel as if it
must have been good. At any rate what I saw of him here,
under the most trying circumstances, with a painful wound,
and among strangers, I can say that he behaved so brave, so
composed, and so sweet and affectionate, it could not be
surpassed. And now, like many other noble and good men,
after serving his country as a soldier, he has yielded up his
young life at the very outset in her service. Such things
are gloomy - yet there is a text, `God doeth all things
well,' the meaning of which, after due time, appears to the
soul.
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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 A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: of his staff of editors, of Etienne Lousteau the feuilletonist, whom
she thought delightful, of Felicien Vernou, of Claude Vignon,--in
short, of the whole staff. She advised Raoul to do justice to de
Marsay when he died, and she read with deep emotion the noble eulogy
which Raoul published upon the dead minister while blaming his
Machiavelianism and his hatred for the masses. She was present, of
course, at the Gymnase on the occasion of the first representation of
the play upon the proceeds of which Nathan relied to support his
enterprise, and was completely duped by the purchased applause.
"You did not bid farewell to the Italian opera," said Lady Dudley, to
whose house she went after the performance.
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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 A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: While Pere Leger stood watching Oscar, Georges, utterly confounded by
the discovery that the farmer was the present occupant of Les
Moulineaux, has slipped away so adroitly that when the fat countryman
looked round for his colonel there was no sign of him.
The iron gates opened at Pierrotin's demand, and he proudly drove in
to deposit with the concierge the thousand and one utensils belonging
to the great Schinner. Oscar was thunderstruck when he became aware
that Mistigris and his master, the witnesses of his bravado, were to
be installed in the chateau itself. In ten minutes Pierrotin had
discharged the various packages of the painter, the bundles of Oscar
Husson, and the pretty little leather portmanteau, which he took from
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