| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: By the time Monsieur de Clagny was admitted, after requesting an
interview, the story of the announcement was known to all Paris. Some
persons regarded it as one of those waggish calumnies, a sort of stab
to which every reputation, even the most ephemeral, is exposed; others
said they had read the paper and returned it to some friend of the La
Baudraye family; a great many declaimed against the immorality of
journalists; in short, this last remaining specimen was regarded as a
curiosity. Florine, with whom Nathan was living, had shown it about,
stamped in the post as paid, and addressed in Etienne's hand. So, as
soon as the judge spoke of the announcement, Nathan began to smile.
"Give up that monument of recklessness and folly?" cried he. "That
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: Betty had never heard it and though she was brave, when the howl from the
forest had its answer in another howl from the creek thicket, she slipped her
little mittened hand under Wetzel's arm and looked up at him with frightened
eyes.
In half an hour the full chorus of yelps, barks and howls swelled hideously on
the air, and the ever increasing pack of wolves could be seen scarcely a
hundred yards behind the sleds. The patter of their swiftly flying feet on the
snow could be distinctly heard. The slender, dark forms came nearer and nearer
every moment. Presently the wolves had approached close enough for the
occupants of the sleds to see their shining eyes looking like little balls of
green fire. A gaunt beast bolder than the others, and evidently the leader of
Betty Zane |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: confusion of the sally he had made, when he found himself in the
middle of a silent and bewildered group, "there are no agents of
police spying here! Here, drink to the Little Corporal with this!"
"Long live the Emperor!" all cried with one voice.
"Hush! children," said the officer, concealing his own deep sorrow
with an effort. "Hush! HE IS DEAD. He died saying, GLORY, FRANCE, AND
BATTLE,' So it had to be, children, he must die; but his memory--
never!"
Goguelat made an incredulous gesture, then he whispered to those about
him, "The officer is still in the service, and orders have been issued
that they are to tell the people that the Emperor is dead. You must
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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 Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: He grapples with the notion that matter is made up of particles, not
in absolute contact, but surrounded by interatomic space. 'Space,'
he observes, 'must be taken as the only continuous part of a body so
constituted. Space will permeate all masses of matter in every
direction like a net, except that in place of meshes it will form
cells, isolating each atom from its neighbours, itself only being
continuous.'
Let us follow out this notion; consider, he argues, the case of a
non-conductor of electricity, such for example as shell-lac, with
its molecules, and intermolecular spaces running through the mass.
In its case space must be an insulator; for if it were a conductor
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