| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: be. I took pains to explain to him that, having picked up the
beacon at the mouth of the river just before dark and the tide
serving, Captain C---- was enabled to cross the bar and there was
nothing to prevent him going up the river at night.
"Captain C---- knows this river like his own pocket," I
concluded, discursively, trying to get on terms.
"Better," said Almayer.
Leaning over the rail of the bridge, I looked at Almayer, who
looked down at the wharf in aggrieved thought. He shuffled his
feet a little; he wore straw slippers with thick soles. The
morning fog had thickened considerably. Everything round us
A Personal Record |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: reported it to her this morning. It happened at her fort. There
was a fuss betwixt Major-General Tommy Drake and Lieutenant-Colonel
Agnes Frisbie, and he snatched her doll away, which is made of
white kid stuffed with sawdust, and tore every rag of its clothes
off, right before them all, and is under arrest, and the charge is
conduct un - "
"Yes, I know - conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman - a
plain case, too, it seems to me. This is a serious matter. Well,
what is her pleasure?"
"Well, Marse Tom, she has summoned a court-martial, but the doctor
don't think she is well enough to preside over it, and she says
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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 A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: Hortense's furniture (Hortense was her name) for four thousand
francs.'
" 'A pretty name,' said Antonia.
" Yes. Napoleon's stepdaughter was called Hortense. I built carriages
for her, as you know.'
" 'Very well, I will see,' said cunning Antonia; 'begin by sending
this young woman to me.'
"Antonia hurried off to see the furniture, and came back fascinated.
She brought Maxime under the spell of antiquarian enthusiasm. That
very evening the Count agreed to the sale of the reading-room. The
establishment, you see, nominally belonged to Mlle. Chocardelle.
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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 Alcibiades I by Plato: ALCIBIADES: Certainly not; the proof is, I think, quite sufficient.
SOCRATES: And if the proof, although not perfect, be sufficient, we shall
be satisfied;--more precise proof will be supplied when we have discovered
that which we were led to omit, from a fear that the enquiry would be too
much protracted.
ALCIBIADES: What was that?
SOCRATES: What I meant, when I said that absolute existence must be first
considered; but now, instead of absolute existence, we have been
considering the nature of individual existence, and this may, perhaps, be
sufficient; for surely there is nothing which may be called more properly
ourselves than the soul?
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