| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Call of the Wild by Jack London: noses with him, Whereupon the old wolf sat down, pointed nose at
the moon, and broke out the long wolf howl. The others sat down
and howled. And now the call came to Buck in unmistakable
accents. He, too, sat down and howled. This over, he came out of
his angle and the pack crowded around him, sniffing in half-
friendly, half-savage manner. The leaders lifted the yelp of the
pack and sprang away into the woods. The wolves swung in behind,
yelping in chorus. And Buck ran with them, side by side with the
wild brother, yelping as he ran.
* * *
And here may well end the story of Buck. The years were not many
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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 Chouans by Honore de Balzac: flinching.
"Nonsense, my good man, you are not here to sell butter; you are
talking to a lady who never bargained for a thing in her life. The
trade you run, old fellow, will shorten you by a head in a very few
days"; and Corentin, with a friendly tap on the man's shoulder, added,
"you can't keep up being a spy of the Blues and a spy of the Chouans
very long."
Galope-Chopine needed all his presence of mind to subdue his rage, and
not deny the accusation which his avarice had made a just one. He
contented himself with saying:--
"Monsieur is making game of me."
The Chouans |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: which gird the town like a belt of mud, haunts of the most shameless
of the daughters of Venus, in which the periodical money of this
people, as ferocious in their pleasures as they are calm at work, is
squandered as it had been at play. For five days, then, there is no
repose for this laborious portion of Paris! It is given up to actions
which make it warped and rough, lean and pale, gush forth with a
thousand fits of creative energy. And then its pleasure, its repose,
are an exhausting debauch, swarthy and black with blows, white with
intoxication, or yellow with indigestion. It lasts but two days, but
it steals to-morrow's bread, the week's soup, the wife's dress, the
child's wretched rags. Men, born doubtless to be beautiful--for all
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
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 Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: Prognosis, Stemmermann on
Prognosis varies with age
Pseudologia phantastica
Psychic contagion
Psychopathic individuals
Purpose of pathological liars, Koppen on
Report, psychology of,
Robert R., case of
Running away from home
Self-mutilation, details of, in one case
Sex assault, false accusations of
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