| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: place near Lagny; his wife wore diamonds at the court balls, and he
prided himself on the rosette of an officer of the Legion of honor in
his buttonhole.
Minard and his wife were exceedingly benevolent. Perhaps he wished to
return in retail to the poor the sums he had mulcted from the public
by the wholesale. Phellion, Colleville, and Thuillier met their old
comrade, Minard, at election, and an intimacy followed; all the closer
with the Thuilliers and Collevilles because Madame Minard seemed
enchanted to make an acquaintance for her daughter in Celeste
Colleville. It was at a grand ball given by the Minards that Celeste
made her first appearance in society (being at that time sixteen and a
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: He waited no longer to ponder over the matter, but started off at
a full run for the nearest police station. He rushed into the room
and told his story breathlessly.
They took him into the next room, the office of the commissioner
for the day. The official in charge, who had been engaged in
earnest conversation with a small, frail-looking, middle-aged man,
turned to Amster with a question as to what brought him there.
"I found this package in the snow."
"Let me see it."
Amster laid it on the table. The older man looked at it, and as
the commissioner was about to open it, he handed him a paper-knife
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew; the howling of
wolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise I once
heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have said something
already, I never heard anything that filled me with so much horror.
These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as
Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin
of this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had
near three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left
him, and went forward on our journey.
The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and
dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Charmides by Plato: And in all that concerns either body or soul, swiftness and activity are
clearly better than slowness and quietness?
Clearly they are.
Then temperance is not quietness, nor is the temperate life quiet,--
certainly not upon this view; for the life which is temperate is supposed
to be the good. And of two things, one is true,--either never, or very
seldom, do the quiet actions in life appear to be better than the quick and
energetic ones; or supposing that of the nobler actions, there are as many
quiet, as quick and vehement: still, even if we grant this, temperance
will not be acting quietly any more than acting quickly and energetically,
either in walking or talking or in anything else; nor will the quiet life
|
