| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: instituted, Balthazar Claes cast aside the ragged robes of his Spanish
nobility for his more illustrious descent from the Ghent martyr.
The patriotic sentiment was so strongly developed in the families
exiled under Charles V. that, to the very close of the eighteenth
century, the Claes remained faithful to the manners and customs and
traditions of their ancestors. They married into none but the purest
burgher families, and required a certain number of aldermen and
burgomasters in the pedigree of every bride-elect before admitting her
to the family. They sought their wives in Bruges or Ghent, in Liege or
in Holland; so that the time-honored domestic customs might be
perpetuated around their hearthstones. This social group became more
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: now with Sir Richard at Stow, on the floor at their feet. But in
the dead of night, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in
hand, with a dozen of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib
over his ugly face, and his skene in his hand. Davils springs up
in bed, and asks but this, 'What is the matter, my son?' whereon
the treacherous villain, without giving him time to say a prayer,
strikes at him, naked as he was, crying, 'Thou shalt be my father
no longer, nor I thy son! Thou shalt die!' and at that all the
rest fall on him. The poor little lad (so he says) leaps up to
cover his master with his naked body, gets three or four stabs of
skenes, and so falls for dead; with his master and Captain Carter,
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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 On Horsemanship by Xenophon: horsemanship. As, for instance, a horse will more readily take the
bit, if each time he accepts it some good befalls him; or, again, he
will leap ditches and spring up embankments and perform all the other
feats incumbent on him, if he be led to associate obedience to the
word of command with relaxation.[13]
[13] Lit. "if every time he performs the word of command he is led to
expect some relaxation."
IX
The topics hitherto considered have been: firstly, how to reduce the
chance of being cheated in the purchase of a colt or full-grown horse;
secondly, how to escape as much as possible the risk of injuring your
On Horsemanship |
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 Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: Which husbandry in honour might uphold,
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
O! none but unthrifts. Dear my love, you know,
You had a father: let your son say so.
XIV
Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;
And yet methinks I have astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
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