| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: recollection[10] of the art of husbandry? since to explain to you the
processes employed in husbandry means the statement of a hundred
details which you know yourself full well already.
[10] Or, "begin recalling to your mind." See Plat. "Meno," for the
doctrine of Anamensis here apparently referred to.
Soc. The first thing I should like to learn, Ischomachus, I think, if
only as a point befitting a philosopher, is this: how to proceed and
how to work the soil, did I desire to extract the largest crops of
wheat and barley.
Isch. Good, then! you are aware that fallow must be broken up in
readiness[11] for sowing?
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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 Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: whether the sister's names were written on the doors, find Sister
Theresa's cell, surprise her as she slept, and carry her off,
bound and gagged. The programme presented no difficulties to men
who combined boldness and a convict's dexterity with the
knowledge peculiar to men of the world, especially as they would
not scruple to give a stab to ensure silence.
In two hours the bars were sawn through. Three men stood on
guard outside, and two inside the parlour. The rest, barefooted,
took up their posts along the corridor. Young Henri de Marsay,
the most dexterous man among them, disguised by way of precaution
in a Carmelite's robe, exactly like the costume of the convent,
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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 Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: of the clandestine.
He did not know that that, and not infatuation, was behind his
desire to see Beverly again; never reasoned that he was
demonstrating to himself that his adventurous love life was not
necessarily ended; never acknowledged that the instinct of the
hunter was as alive in him as in the days before his marriage.
Partly, then, a desire for adventure, partly a hope that romance
was not over but might still be waiting around the next corner,
was behind his desire to see her again.
Probably Nina knew that, as she knew so many things; why he had
taken to reading poetry, for instance. Certain it is that when he
The Breaking Point |
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 Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "How do you feel, Miss Baedeker?"
The girl addressed was trying, unsuccessfully, to slump against my
shoulder. At this inquiry she sat up and opened her eyes.
"Wha'?"
A massive and lethargic woman, who had been urging Daisy to play golf
with her at the local club to-morrow, spoke in Miss Baedeker's defence:
"Oh, she's all right now. When she's had five or six cocktails she always
starts screaming like that. I tell her she ought to leave it alone."
"I do leave it alone," affirmed the accused hollowly.
"We heard you yelling, so I said to Doc Civet here: 'There's somebody
that needs your help, Doc.'"
The Great Gatsby |
