| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Aspern Papers by Henry James: the pecuniary question should constantly come back.
"That would be very good for me," she replied, smiling.
"You put me on my honor!"
She looked as if she failed to understand this, but went on:
"She wants me to have more. She thinks she is going to die."
"Ah, not soon, I hope!" I exclaimed with genuine feeling.
I had perfectly considered the possibility that she would destroy
her papers on the day she should feel her end really approach.
I believed that she would cling to them till then, and I think
I had an idea that she read Aspern's letters over every night
or at least pressed them to her withered lips. I would have
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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 Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: And what I may to furnish up there rites
With pleasing sports and pastimes you shall see.
KING.
Thanks, good Segasto, I will think of this.
MUCEDORUS.
Thanks, good my Lord, & while I live
Account of me in what I can or may.
AMADINE.
And, good Segasto, these great courtesies
Shall not be forgot.
MOUSE.
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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 The Symposium by Xenophon: [57] See Plat. "Phaedr." 255 C; Cic. "Tusc." i. 26, "nec Homerum audio
. . . divina mallem ad nos," a protest against anthropomorphism in
religion.
[58] Not in "our" version of Homer, but cf. "Il." xx. 405, {ganutai de
te tois 'Enosikhthon}; "Il." xiii. 493, {ganutai d' ara te phrena
poimen}.
And again, in another passage he says:
Knowing deep devices ({medea}) in his mind,[59]
which is as much as to say, "knowing wise counsels in his mind."
Ganymede, therefore, bears a name compounded of the two words, "joy"
and "counsel," and is honoured among the gods, not as one "whose
The Symposium |
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 From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: large-grained powder, which removes those difficulties.
In his Columbiad charges Rodman employed a powder as large
as chestnuts, made of willow charcoal, simply dried in cast-
iron pans. This powder was hard and glittering, left no trace
upon the hand, contained hydrogen and oxygen in large proportion,
took fire instantaneously, and, though very destructive, did not
sensibly injure the mouth-piece."
Up to this point Barbicane had kept aloof from the discussion;
he left the others to speak while he himself listened; he had
evidently got an idea. He now simply said, "Well, my friends,
what quantity of powder do you propose?"
From the Earth to the Moon |
