| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: to disappoint or upset her little plans for his comings
and goings. It was in the very nature of things that it
should be so.
Sustained by these considerations, Mr. Ware slackened his steps,
then halted irresolutely, and after a minute's hesitation,
entered the small temperance restaurant before which,
as by intuition, he had paused. The elderly woman who
placed on the tiny table before him the tea and rolls
he ordered, was entirely unknown to him, he felt sure,
yet none the less she smiled at him, and spoke almost
familiarly--"I suppose Mrs. Ware is at the seaside,
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: oratory, or strategy; whose ambition it is to be like Achilles, or
Ajax, Nestor, or Odysseus--one and all pay court to me, for I have all
this knowledge at my fingers' ends.
[6] Or, "his creations are all but coextensive with every mortal
thing."
Pray (interposed Antisthenes),[7] do you also know the way to be a
king?[8] since Homer praises Agamemnon, you are well aware, as being
A goodly king and eke a spearman bold.[9]
[7] Some modern critics (e.g. F. Dummler, "Antisthenica," p. 29 foll.)
maintain plausibly that the author is here glancing (as also Plato
in the "Ion") at Antisthenes' own treatises against the
The Symposium |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: one another in France since the Charter. A woman with principles could
not have fallen into better hands. It is certainly a great thing for a
virtuous woman to have married a man incapable of follies.
Occasionally some fops have been sufficiently impertinent to press the
hand of the marquise while dancing with her. They gained nothing in
return but contemptuous glances; all were made to feel the shock of
that insulting indifference which, like a spring frost, destroys the
germs of flattering hopes. Beaux, wits, and fops, men whose sentiments
are fed by sucking their canes, those of a great name, or a great
fame, those of the highest or the lowest rank in her own world, they
all blanch before her. She has conquered the right to converse as long
|
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 Juana by Honore de Balzac: upon him. The goodness of his wife gave him no violent emotions, and
violent emotions were what he wanted. What myriads of scenes are
played in the depths of his souls, beneath the cold exterior of lives
that are, apparently, commonplace! Among these dramas, lasting each
but a short time, though they influence life so powerfully and are
frequently the forerunners of the great misfortune doomed to fall on
so many marriages, it is difficult to choose an example. There was a
scene, however, which particularly marked the moment when in the life
of this husband and wife estrangement began. Perhaps it may also serve
to explain the finale of this narrative.
Juana had two children, happily for her, two sons. The first was born
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