| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: flourishing a vengeful arm and repeating to himself slowly, with
savage emphasis: "AH! CANAILLE! CANAILLE! CANAILLE!. . ." He
left me there trembling with weakness and mute with awe. Unable to
make a sound, I gazed after the strangely desolate figure of that
seaman carrying an oar on his shoulder up a barren, rock-strewn
ravine under the dreary leaden sky of Tremolino's last day. Thus,
walking deliberately, with his back to the sea, Dominic vanished
from my sight.
With the quality of our desires, thoughts, and wonder proportioned
to our infinite littleness, we measure even time itself by our own
stature. Imprisoned in the house of personal illusions, thirty
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: in silence, in order to give the ladies the pleasure of deducing them,
"ex professo," to those who are unable to guess them.
Eugene at last went to call upon the marquise; but, on attempting to
pass into the house, the porter stopped him, saying that Madame la
marquise was out. As he was getting back into his carriage the Marquis
de Listomere came home.
"Come in, Eugene," he said. "My wife is at home."
Pray excuse the marquis. A husband, however good he may be, never
attains perfection. As they went up the staircase Rastignac perceived
at least a dozen blunders in worldly wisdom which had, unaccountably,
slipped into this page of the glorious book of his life.
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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 Phaedo by Plato: and this is said truly?
Yes, truly.
But what will those who maintain the soul to be a harmony say of this
presence of virtue and vice in the soul?--will they say that here is
another harmony, and another discord, and that the virtuous soul is
harmonized, and herself being a harmony has another harmony within her, and
that the vicious soul is inharmonical and has no harmony within her?
I cannot tell, replied Simmias; but I suppose that something of the sort
would be asserted by those who say that the soul is a harmony.
And we have already admitted that no soul is more a soul than another;
which is equivalent to admitting that harmony is not more or less harmony,
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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 A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: made their way to the spot where the carriage was waiting. But before
getting into it, they playfully took hands and ran together down the
dark avenue in front of Madame Crochard. When they could no longer see
the white net cap, which showed as a speck through the leaves where
the old woman was--"Caroline!" said Roger in a tremulous voice, and
with a beating heart.
The girl was startled, and drew back a few steps, understanding the
invitation this question conveyed; however, she held out her hand,
which was passionately kissed, but which she hastily withdrew, for by
standing on tiptoe she could see her mother.
Madame Crochard affected blindness, as if, with a reminiscence of her
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