| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: our own business.' Was he right who affirmed that?
You monster! I said; this is what Critias, or some philosopher has told
you.
Some one else, then, said Critias; for certainly I have not.
But what matter, said Charmides, from whom I heard this?
No matter at all, I replied; for the point is not who said the words, but
whether they are true or not.
There you are in the right, Socrates, he replied.
To be sure, I said; yet I doubt whether we shall ever be able to discover
their truth or falsehood; for they are a kind of riddle.
What makes you think so? he said.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: me the heartburn. Allow me to inquire of your host if there
is not a good bottle of Beaugency, or of the Ceran growth,
at the back of the large bins in his cellar."
The host, being sent for, immediately attended.
"Monsieur," interrupted the poet, "take care, we shall not
have time to drink the wine, unless we make great haste, for
I must take advantage of the tide to secure the boat."
"What boat?" asked D'Artagnan.
"Why the boat which sets out for Belle-Isle!"
"Ah -- for Belle-Isle," said the musketeer, "that is good."
"Bah! you will have plenty of time, monsieur," replied the
Ten Years Later |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: has not done ill in a worldly sense in the Hawaiian Kingdom. When
calamity befell their innocent parishioners, when leprosy descended
and took root in the Eight Islands, a QUID PRO QUO was to be looked
for. To that prosperous mission, and to you, as one of its
adornments, God had sent at last an opportunity. I know I am
touching here upon a nerve acutely sensitive. I know that others
of your colleagues look back on the inertia of your Church, and the
intrusive and decisive heroism of Damien, with something almost to
be called remorse. I am sure it is so with yourself; I am
persuaded your letter was inspired by a certain envy, not
essentially ignoble, and the one human trait to be espied in that
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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 Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: indirect. Approaching in this manner that problematical science--which
is, nevertheless, so sure of itself!--called political economy,
Sallenauve had also studied the sources which contribute to form the
great current of national prosperity; and in this connection the
subject of mines, the topic at this moment most interesting to
Monsieur de Camps, had not been neglected by him. We can imagine the
admiration of the iron-master, who had studied too exclusively the
subject of iron ore to know much about the other branches of
metallurgy, when the young deputy told him, apropos of the wealth of
our soil, a sort of Arabian Nights tale, which, if science would only
take hold of it, might become a reality.
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