| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: longer bear a crop, and their suckers have formed a thicket. The
espaliers are like a copse. The paths, once graveled, are overgrown
with purslane; but, to be accurate there is no trace of a path.
"Looking down from the hilltop, to which cling the ruins of the old
castle of the Dukes of Vendome, the only spot whence the eye can see
into this enclosure, we think that at a time, difficult now to
determine, this spot of earth must have been the joy of some country
gentleman devoted to roses and tulips, in a word, to horticulture, but
above all a lover of choice fruit. An arbor is visible, or rather the
wreck of an arbor, and under it a table still stands not entirely
destroyed by time. At the aspect of this garden that is no more, the
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: his right (the right his resentment would have enjoyed) to regard
himself as a victim. Somehow the ravage of the question was
checked by the Master's radiance. It was as fine in its way as
Marian Fancourt's, it denoted the happy human being; but also it
represented to Paul Overt that the author of "Shadowmere" had now
definitely ceased to count - ceased to count as a writer. As he
smiled a welcome across the place he was almost banal, was almost
smug. Paul fancied that for a moment he hesitated to make a
movement, as if for all the world he HAD his bad conscience; then
they had already met in the middle of the room and had shaken hands
- expressively, cordially on St. George's part. With which they
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