| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: SOCRATES: Then the same person is able to speak both falsely and truly
about calculation? And that person is he who is good at calculation--the
arithmetician?
HIPPIAS: Yes.
SOCRATES: Who, then, Hippias, is discovered to be false at calculation?
Is he not the good man? For the good man is the able man, and he is the
true man.
HIPPIAS: That is evident.
SOCRATES: Do you not see, then, that the same man is false and also true
about the same matters? And the true man is not a whit better than the
false; for indeed he is the same with him and not the very opposite, as you
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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 Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: unintelligible) pleasure therein. Now, in humble deference to
his honour, and in justifiable defence of my friend deceased, I
reply to this charge, that howsoever the form of such animals
might appear to be similar to those so protected by the law, yet
it was a mere DECEPTIO VISUS; for what resembled hares were, in
fact, HILL-KIDS, and those partaking of the appearance of moor-
fowl, were truly WOOD PIGEONS and consumed and eaten EO NOMINE,
and not otherwise.
Again, the Exciseman pretended, that my deceased Landlord did
encourage that species of manufacture called distillation,
without having an especial permission from the Great, technically
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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 Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: last century, the hotel Duperron, so it seemed probable that the
illustrious Cardinal of that name had built, or perhaps merely lived
in it.
There still exists, indeed, in the corner of the courtyard, a perron
or flight of several outer steps by which the house is entered; and
the way into the garden on the garden front is down a similar flight
of steps. In spite of dilapidations, the luxury lavished by the
architect on the balustrade and entrance porch crowning these two
perrons suggests the simple-minded purpose of commemorating the
owner's name, a sort of sculptured pun which our ancestors often
allowed themselves. Finally, in support of this evidence,
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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 Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: telling him. 'Be a man! Live it down, man!' But not he. Of course,
it's just solitude, and shame, and all that. But I confess I'm
beginning to fear the result. It would be all the pities in the world
if a really promising fellow like Weir was to end ill. I'm seriously
tempted to write to Lord Hermiston, and put it plainly to him."
"I would if I were you," some of his auditors would say, shaking the
head, sitting bewildered and confused at this new view of the matter, so
deftly indicated by a single word. "A capital idea!" they would add,
and wonder at the APLOMB and position of this young man, who talked as a
matter of course of writing to Hermiston and correcting him upon his
private affairs.
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