| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: "Sir!"
"Speak lower," the cashier went on. "How if I were to propose a piece
of business that would bring you in as much money as you require?"
"It would not discharge my liabilities; every business that I ever
heard of wants a little time to simmer in."
"I know of something that will set you straight in a moment," answered
Castanier; "but first you would have to----"
"Do what?"
"Sell your share of paradise. It is a matter of business like anything
else, isn't it? We all hold shares in the great Speculation of
Eternity."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: active intervention. The two men left their carriage and plunged
into the network of unlovely dark streets in which the Jews and
traders harboured. . . . Benham's first intervention was on behalf
of a crouching and yelping bundle of humanity that was being dragged
about and kicked at a street corner. The bundle resolved itself
into a filthy little old man, and made off with extraordinary
rapidity, while Benham remonstrated with the kickers. Benham's
tallness, his very Gentile face, his good clothes, and an air of
tense authority about him had its effect, and the kickers shuffled
off with remarks that were partly apologies. But Benham's friend
revolted. This was no business of theirs.
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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 The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: Promenade, reached the Staircase, then the bottom of the ravine,
crossed the Nancon and the suburb, and divining like a bird in the
desert her right course among the dangerous precipices of the Mont
Saint-Sulpice, she followed a slippery track defined upon the granite,
and in spite of the prickly gorse and reeds and loose stones which
hindered her, she climbed the steep ascent with an energy greater
perhaps than that of a man,--the energy momentarily possessed by a
woman under the influence of passion.
Night overtook her as she endeavored by the failing moonlight to make
out the path the marquis must have taken; an obstinate quest without
reward, for the dead silence about her was sufficient proof of the
The Chouans |
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: internal portion of the wire at the first instance, and disposed for
the moment on its surface jointly with the air and surrounding
conductors, then I venture to anticipate that the middle spark would
be more retarded than before. And if those two plates were the
inner and outer coatings of a large jar or Leyden battery, then the
retardation of the spark would be much greater.' This was only a
prediction, for the experiment was not made.[2] Sixteen years
subsequently, however, the proper conditions came into play, and
Faraday was able to show that the observations of Werner Siemens,
and Latimer Clark, on subterraneous and submarine wires were
illustrations, on a grand scale, of the principle which he had
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