| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: dead in you--as Fenelon put it.--No, this stewardship is not the thing
for you. A man cannot be off with his Paris and with us, old boy, for
the saying! You would die of weariness at Herouville."
"What is to become of me?" said the Baron, "for I will only stay here
till I see my way."
"Well, shall I find a pigeon-hole for you? Listen, you old pirate.
Women are what you want. They are consolation in all circumstances.
Attend now.--At the end of the Alley, Rue Saint-Maur-du-Temple, there
is a poor family I know of where there is a jewel of a little girl,
prettier than I was at sixteen.--Ah! there is a twinkle in your eye
already!--The child works sixteen hours a day at embroidering costly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: degrees into vast accumulated masses.
Then came the chemical action of nature; in the depths of the seas
the vegetable accumulations first became peat; then, acted upon by
generated gases and the heat of fermentation, they underwent a
process of complete mineralization.
Thus were formed those immense coalfields, which nevertheless, are
not inexhaustible, and which three centuries at the present
accelerated rate of consumption will exhaust unless the industrial
world will devise a remedy.
These reflections came into my mind whilst I was contemplating the
mineral wealth stored up in this portion of the globe. These no
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: countrymen) that until every other country in the Christian world,
even to barbarian Muscovy and the hamlets of the boorish Germans, have
its playhouse at the public charge, England will never adventure. And
she will adventure then only because it is her desire to be ever in
the fashion, and to do humbly and dutifully whatso she seeth everybody
else doing. In the meantime you must content yourself as best you can
by the playing of those two pieces which you give out as the most
damnable ever writ, but which your countrymen, I warn you, will swear
are the best you have ever done. But this I will say, that if I could
speak across the ages to our descendants, I should heartily recommend
them to fulfil your wish; for the Scottish minstrel hath well said
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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 Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: in their summer home and breeding-place. Warblers, named for the
magnolia and the myrtle, chestnut-sided, bay-breasted, blue-backed,
and black-throated, flutter and creep along the branches with
simple lisping music. Kinglets, ruby-crowned and golden-crowned,
tiny, brilliant sparks of life, twitter among the trees, breaking
occasionally into clearer, sweeter songs. Companies of redpolls
and crossbills pass chirping through the thickets, busily seeking
their food. The fearless, familiar chickadee repeats his name
merrily, while he leads his family to explore every nook and cranny
of the wood. Cedar wax-wings, sociable wanderers, arrive in
numerous flocks. The Canadians call them "recollets," because they
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