| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: oily and smooth and glutinous becomes rough and salt and dry, owing to bad
regimen, then all the substance thus corrupted crumbles away under the
flesh and the sinews, and separates from the bone, and the fleshy parts
fall away from their foundation and leave the sinews bare and full of
brine, and the flesh again gets into the circulation of the blood and makes
the previously-mentioned disorders still greater. And if these bodily
affections be severe, still worse are the prior disorders; as when the bone
itself, by reason of the density of the flesh, does not obtain sufficient
air, but becomes mouldy and hot and gangrened and receives no nutriment,
and the natural process is inverted, and the bone crumbling passes into the
food, and the food into the flesh, and the flesh again falling into the
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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 Message by Honore de Balzac: One of us had traveled six hundred miles to see his mistress for
an hour. The other, at the risk of being shot for a wolf, had
prowled about her park to meet her one night. Out came all our
follies in fact. If it is pleasant to remember past dangers, is
it not at least as pleasant to recall past delights? We live
through the joy a second time. We told each other everything, our
perils, our great joys, our little pleasures, and even the humors
of the situation. My friend's countess had lighted a cigar for
him; mine made chocolate for me, and wrote to me every day when
we did not meet; his lady had come to spend three days with him
at the risk of ruin to her reputation; mine had done even better,
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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 Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: that's reason enough. And if they really do know, I'm glad."
"But we didn't want them to know. Not yet--until--until just
before the----"
T. A. Buck laid his hands lightly on Emma McChesney's shoulders.
Emma McChesney promptly reached up and removed them.
"There you are!" exclaimed Buck, and rammed the offending hands
into his pockets.
"That's why I'm glad they know--if they really do know. I'm no
actor. I'm a skirt-and-lingerie manufacturer. For the last six
weeks, instead of being allowed to look at you with the
expression that a man naturally wears when he's looking at the
Emma McChesney & Co. |
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 The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: guide. After half an hour's conversation I took my leave, being
half stifled by the closeness of the room. I imagined he could not
hold out long, and therefore withdrew to a little coffee-house hard
by, leaving a servant at the house with orders to come immediately
and tell me, as nearly as he could, the minute when Partridge
should expire, which was not above two hours after, when, looking
upon my watch, I found it to be above five minutes after seven; by
which it is clear that Mr. Bickerstaff was mistaken almost four
hours in his calculation. In the other circumstances he was exact
enough. But, whether he has not been the cause of this poor man's
death, as well as the predictor, may be very reasonably disputed.
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