| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: manners and, let us say the word, the majesty of the princess placed
between them. The conversation, which remained upon the topic of
Michel Chrestien until the dessert, was an excellent pretext for both
to speak in a low voice: love, sympathy, comprehension! she could pose
as a maligned and misunderstood woman; he could slip his feet into the
shoes of the dead republican. Perhaps his candid mind detected itself
in regretting his dead friend less. The princess, at the moment when
the dessert appeared upon the table, and the guests were separated by
a brilliant hedge of fruits and sweetmeats, thought best to put an end
to this flow of confidences by a charming little speech, in which she
delicately expressed the idea that Daniel and Michel were twin souls.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: in maintaining this, we are compelled over and over again to assert being
of not-being, which we admitted just now to be an utter impossibility.
STRANGER: How well you remember! And now it is high time to hold a
consultation as to what we ought to do about the Sophist; for if we persist
in looking for him in the class of false workers and magicians, you see
that the handles for objection and the difficulties which will arise are
very numerous and obvious.
THEAETETUS: They are indeed.
STRANGER: We have gone through but a very small portion of them, and they
are really infinite.
THEAETETUS: If that is the case, we cannot possibly catch the Sophist.
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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 Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling: our road; and the magistrate told him, out of his own
Book, I believe, that, whatever his Gods might be, he
should pay proper respect to Caesar.'
'What did you do?' said Dan.
'Went on. Why should I care for such things, my
business being to reach my station? It took me twenty days.
'Of course, the farther North you go the emptier are the
roads. At last you fetch clear of the forests and climb bare
hills, where wolves howl in the ruins of our cities that
have been. No more pretty girls; no more jolly magistrates
who knew your Father when he was young, and
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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 The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: gaze of an aged recluse. The Mother might have been a century
old, but the bright, youthful eyes belied the wrinkles that
furrowed her pale face.
"Mme la Duchesse," he began, his voice shaken with emotion,
"does your companion understand French?" The veiled figure
bowed her head at the sound of his voice.
"There is no duchess here," she replied. "It is Sister
Theresa whom you see before you. She whom you call my companion
is my mother in God, my superior here on earth."
The words were so meekly spoken by the voice that sounded in
other years amid harmonious surroundings of refined luxury, the
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