| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: who retain their freedom, after having abolished from amongst
them those peculiar and hereditary rights which perpetuated the
tenure of property in the hands of certain individuals or certain
bodies. When men living in a democratic state of society are
enlightened, they readily discover that they are confined and
fixed within no limits which constrain them to take up with their
present fortune. They all therefore conceive the idea of
increasing it; if they are free, they all attempt it, but all do
not succeed in the same manner. The legislature, it is true, no
longer grants privileges, but they are bestowed by nature. As
natural inequality is very great, fortunes become unequal as soon
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: ALCIBIADES: There is not.
SOCRATES: Nor can there be friendship, if friendship is agreement?
ALCIBIADES: Plainly not.
SOCRATES: Then women are not loved by men when they do their own work?
ALCIBIADES: I suppose not.
SOCRATES: Nor men by women when they do their own work?
ALCIBIADES: No.
SOCRATES: Nor are states well administered, when individuals do their own
work?
ALCIBIADES: I should rather think, Socrates, that the reverse is the
truth. (Compare Republic.)
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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 A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: "Astonishment.
" 'No? Then you are one of the new dukes of Gaeta, I suppose, of
imperial creation? No? Oh, well, how can you expect my friend to cross
swords with you when he will be secretary of an embassy and ambassador
/some day/, and you will owe him respect? /Godin!/ the thing is non-
existent! You are a nonentity, Godin. My friend cannot be expected to
beat the air! When one is somebody, one cannot fight with a nobody!
Come, my dear fellow--good-day.'
" 'My respects to madame,' added the friend.
"Another day La Palferine was walking with a friend who flung his
cigar end in the face of a passer-by. The recipient had the bad taste
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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 The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: they were married! Did you ever, in the whole course of your
experience, hear of such heartless conduct?"
Bourgonef asked this with a ferocity which quite startled me. I
did not answer him; for, in truth, I could not see that Agalma had
been very much to blame, even as he told the story, and felt sure
that could I have heard her version it would have worn a very
different aspect. That she was cold, and disappointed him, might
be true enough, but there was no crime; and I perfectly understood
how thoroughly odious he must have made himself to her by his
exactions and reproaches. I understood this, perhaps, all the
better, because in the course of his narrative Bourgonef had
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