| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: "does passion," to use a term of the literary argot; but instead of
awaking ideas, his heroes are simply enlarged individualities, who
excite only fugitive sympathies; they are not connected with any of
the great interests of life, and consequently they represent nothing.
Nevertheless, Nathan maintains his ground by the quickness of his
mind, by those lucky hits which billiard-players call a "good stroke."
He is the cleverest shot at ideas on the fly in all Paris. His
fecundity is not his own, but that of his epoch; he lives on chance
events, and to control them he distorts their meaning. In short, he is
not TRUE; his presentation is false; in him, as Comte Felix said, is
the born juggler. Moreover, his pen gets its ink in the boudoir of an
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Frances Waldeaux by Rebecca Davis: I know just the kind of a wife George will choose,"
she chattered on eagerly. "I understand him so
thoroughly that I can understand her. But where could he
find her? He is so absurdly fastidious!"
Miss Vance was silent and thoughtful a moment. Then she
came closer. "I will tell you where to find her," she
said, in a low voice. "I have thought of it for a long
time. It seems to me that Providence actually made Lucy
Dunbar for George."
"Really?" Mrs. Waldeaux drew her self up stiffly.
"Wait, Frances. Lucy has been with me for three years.
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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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: simply wanted the explosive machine for a purely family matter, in
which no one was concerned but himself.
Count Rouvaloff looked at him for some moments in amazement, and
then seeing that he was quite serious, wrote an address on a piece
of paper, initialled it, and handed it to him across the table.
'Scotland Yard would give a good deal to know this address, my dear
fellow.'
'They shan't have it,' cried Lord Arthur, laughing; and after
shaking the young Russian warmly by the hand he ran downstairs,
examined the paper, and told the coachman to drive to Soho Square.
There he dismissed him, and strolled down Greek Street, till he
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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 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: to me, and said aloud, 'Cousin, pray open the door; here's
some gentlemen that must come and look into your room.'
I had a little girl with me, which was my governess's grandchild,
as she called her; and I bade her open the door, and there sat
I at work with a great litter of things about me, as if I had been
at work all day, being myself quite undressed, with only
night-clothes on my head, and a loose morning-gown wrapped
about me. My governess made a kind of excuse for their
disturbing me, telling me partly the occasion of it, and that she
had no remedy but to open the doors to them, and let them
satisfy themselves, for all she could say to them would not
Moll Flanders |
