| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: cigars and discoursing bitterly to animate all hearts with hatred
against the French. Silver pitchers and precious dishes of plate and
porcelain adorned a buttery shelf of the old fashion. But the light,
sparsely admitted, allowed these dazzling objects to show but
slightly; all things, as in pictures of the Dutch school, looked
brown, even the faces. Between the shop and this living-room, so fine
in color and in its tone of patriarchal life, was a dark staircase
leading to a ware-room where the light, carefully distributed,
permitted the examination of goods. Above this were the apartments of
the merchant and his wife. Rooms for an apprentice and a servant-woman
were in a garret under the roof, which projected over the street and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: tempestuous sorrow, and sunk into silent pensiveness and gloomy
tranquillity. She sat from morning to evening recollecting all
that had been done or said by her Pekuah, treasured up with care
every trifle on which Pekuah had set an accidental value, and which
might recall to mind any little incident or careless conversation.
The sentiments of her whom she now expected to see no more were
treasured in her memory as rules of life, and she deliberated to no
other end than to conjecture on any occasion what would have been
the opinion and counsel of Pekuah.
The women by whom she was attended knew nothing of her real
condition, and therefore she could not talk to them but with
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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 Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: "Without doubt, he has expressed his anger with too much violence,"
Phanuel replied calmly. "But do not heed that further. He must be set
free."
"One does not let loose a furious animal," said the tetrarch.
"Have no fear of him now," was the quick reply. "He will go straight
to the Arabs, the Gauls, and the Scythians. His work must be extended
to the uttermost ends of the earth."
For a moment Antipas appeared lost in thought, as one who sees a
vision. Then he said:
"His power over men is indeed great. In spite of myself, I admire
him!"
Herodias |
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 Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: than he the slightest wrath of the ocean, the faintest change on that
vast face. By the manner of the waves as they rose and died away upon
the shore, he could foresee tempests, surges, squalls, the height of
tides, or calms. When night had spread its veil upon the sky, he still
could see the sea in its twilight mystery, and talk with it. At all
times he shared its fecund life, feeling in his soul the tempest when
it was angry; breathing its rage in its hissing breath; running with
its waves as they broke in a thousand liquid fringes upon the rocks.
He felt himself intrepid, free, and terrible as the sea itself; like
it, he bounded and fell back; he kept its solemn silence; he copied
its sudden pause. In short, he had wedded the sea; it was now his
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