| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: dead in ten months. Pooh! he was a strong as a mountain. Always
distrust men who say they have a liver complaint. I will never listen
to a man who talks of his liver.--I have had too much of livers--who
cannot die. My nabob robbed me; he died without making a will, and the
family turned me out of doors like a leper.--So, then, I said to my
fat friend here, 'Pay for two!'--You may as well call me Joan of Arc;
I have ruined England, and perhaps I shall die at the stake----"
"Of love?" said Tullia.
"And burnt alive," answered Esther, and the question made her
thoughtful.
The Baron laughed at all this vulgar nonsense, but he did not always
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: of the night and day had left no room in her mind for
new sensations and she followed Mr. Royall as passively
as a tired child. As in a confused dream she presently
found herself sitting with him in a pleasant room, at a
table with a red and white table-cloth on which
hot food and tea were placed. He filled her cup and
plate and whenever she lifted her eyes from them she
found his resting on her with the same steady tranquil
gaze that had reassured and strengthened her when they
had faced each other in old Mrs. Hobart's kitchen. As
everything else in her consciousness grew more and more
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: in oracle concerning Lycurgus,[26] the great lawgiver of Lacedaemon,
than those concerning me. It is said that as he entered the temple the
god addressed him with the words: 'I am considering whether to call
thee god or man.' Me he likened not indeed to a god, but in
excellence[27] preferred me far beyond other men."
[25] L. Dindorf cf. Athen. v. 218 E; Hermesianax ap. Athen. xiii. 599
A; Liban. vol. iii. pp. 34, 35; Plat. "Apol." 21 A; Paus. i. 22.
8; Schol. ad Aristoph. "Clouds," 144; Grote, "H. G." viii. 567
foll.
[26] See Herod. i. 65:
{ekeis, o Lukoorge, emon pori piona neon,
The Apology |
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 Paz by Honore de Balzac: After that reply Thaddeus said no more; he was silent until, as they
passed a wooden building on the Champs Elysees, he said, pointing to
it, "That is the Circus."
He went to the Russian Embassy before dinner, and thence to the
Foreign office, and the next morning he had started for Havre before
the count and countess were up.
"I have lost a friend," said Adam, with tears in his eyes, when he
heard that Paz had gone,--"a friend in the true meaning of the word. I
don't know what has made him abandon me as if a pestilence were in my
house. We are not friends to quarrel about a woman," he said, looking
intently at Clementine. "You heard what he said yesterday about
|
