| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: expensive villany had actually succeeded, had I not used my
utmost interest with the vestry, where it was carried at last but
by two voices, that I am still alive. That stratagem failing, out
comes a long sable elegy, bedeck'd with hour-glasses, mattocks,
sculls, spades, and skeletons, with an epitaph as confidently
written to abuse me, and my profession, as if I had been under
ground these twenty years.
And, after such barbarous treatment as this, can the world blame
me, when I ask, What is become of the freedom of an Englishman?
And where is the liberty and property that my old glorious friend
came over to assert? We have drove popery out of the nation, and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: and Mr. Secretary Peters as commissioners to act for Pennsylvania.
The House approv'd the nomination, and provided the goods for the present,
and tho' they did not much like treating out of the provinces;
and we met the other commissioners at Albany about the middle of June.
In our way thither, I projected and drew a plan for the union
of all the colonies under one government, so far as might be
necessary for defense, and other important general purposes.
As we pass'd thro' New York, I had there shown my project to Mr. James
Alexander and Mr. Kennedy, two gentlemen of great knowledge
in public affairs, and, being fortified by their approbation,
I ventur'd to lay it before the Congress. It then appeared that
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: his eyes kindling with insane fury,--"I spurn at it, as worthy
only of the beasts that perish; but I will waste no more words
with you."
He rose hastily; but, ere he withdrew into the hut, he added,
with great vehemence, "Yet, lest you still think my apparent
benefits to mankind flow from the stupid and servile source,
called love of our fellow-creatures, know, that were there a man
who had annihilated my soul's dearest hope--who had torn my heart
to mammocks, and seared mp brain till it glowed like a volcano,
and were that man's fortune and life in my power as completely as
this frail potsherd" (he snatched up an earthen cup which stood
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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 Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: gave out that he was a retired merchant, and was addressed as M.
Vautrin. Two of the four rooms on the third floor were also let--
one to an elderly spinster, a Mlle. Michonneau, and the other to
a retired manufacturer of vermicelli, Italian paste and starch,
who allowed the others to address him as "Father Goriot." The
remaining rooms were allotted to various birds of passage, to
impecunious students, who like "Father Goriot" and Mlle.
Michonneau, could only muster forty-five francs a month to pay
for their board and lodging. Mme. Vauquer had little desire for
lodgers of this sort; they ate too much bread, and she only took
them in default of better.
Father Goriot |
