| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: the explanation is only provisional. For my own part, I look with
profound interest and hope on the strange action here referred to.
Faraday's thoughts ran intuitively into experimental combinations,
so that subjects whose capacity for experimental treatment would, to
ordinary minds, seem to be exhausted in a moment, were shown by him
to be all but inexhaustible. He has now an object in view, the
first step towards which is the proof that the principle of
Archimedes is true of magnetism. He forms magnetic solutions of
various degrees of strength, places them between the poles of his
magnet, and suspends in the solutions various magnetic bodies.
He proves that when the solution is stronger than the body plunged in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: themselves at their desks,--the chilly one has a wooden footstool
under his feet; the man with a bilious temperament has a metal mat;
the lymphatic being who dreads draughts constructs a fortification of
boxes on a screen. The door of the under-head-clerk's office always
stands open so that he may keep an eye to some extent on his
subordinates.
Perhaps an exact description of Monsieur de la Billardiere's division
will suffice to give foreigners and provincials an idea of the
internal manners and customs of a government office; the chief
features of which are probably much the same in the civil service of
all European governments.
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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 Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: the Avenue de Marigny, to the south by the road, to the north by the
gardens of the Faubourg Saint-Honore. Never is this pretty variety of
woman to be seen in the hyperborean regions of the Rue Saint-Denis,
never in the Kamtschatka of miry, narrow, commercial streets, never
anywhere in bad weather. These flowers of Paris, blooming only in
Oriental weather, perfume the highways; and after five o'clock fold up
like morning-glory flowers. The women you will see later, looking a
little like them, are would-be ladies; while the fair Unknown, your
Beatrice of a day, is a 'perfect lady.'
"It is not very easy for a foreigner, my dear Count, to recognize the
differences by which the observer /emeritus/ distinguishes them--women
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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 Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: covered with rocks and straw.
Old father badger was a great hunter. He knew well how to
track the deer and buffalo. Every day he came home carrying on his
back some wild game. This kept mother badger very busy, and the
baby badgers very chubby. While the well-fed children played
about, digging little make-believe dwellings, their mother hung
thin sliced meats upon long willow racks. As fast as the meats
were dried and seasoned by sun and wind, she packed them carefully
away in a large thick bag.
This bag was like a huge stiff envelope, but far more
beautiful to see, for it was painted all over with many bright
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