| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: than a phantom. Her lips, which were pale violet, seemed to me not to
move when she spoke to me.
" 'Though my profession has familiarized me with such spectacles, by
calling me not infrequently to the bedside of the dying to record
their last wishes, I confess that families in tears and the agonies I
have seen were as nothing in comparison with this lonely and silent
woman in her vast chateau. I heard not the least sound, I did not
perceive the movement which the sufferer's breathing ought to have
given to the sheets that covered her, and I stood motionless, absorbed
in looking at her in a sort of stupor. In fancy I am there still. At
last her large eyes moved; she tried to raise her right hand, but it
La Grande Breteche |
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 Protagoras by Plato: Yes, indeed, he said: and there are some things which may be inexpedient,
and yet I call them good.
I thought that Protagoras was getting ruffled and excited; he seemed to be
setting himself in an attitude of war. Seeing this, I minded my business,
and gently said:--
When you say, Protagoras, that things inexpedient are good, do you mean
inexpedient for man only, or inexpedient altogether? and do you call the
latter good?
Certainly not the last, he replied; for I know of many things--meats,
drinks, medicines, and ten thousand other things, which are inexpedient for
man, and some which are expedient; and some which are neither expedient nor
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