| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: of handy men they must have been, too--used to build, apparently by
the hundred, in a month or two, if we may believe what we read.
Imagine him here--the very end of the world, a sea the colour of lead,
a sky the colour of smoke, a kind of ship about as rigid as a concertina--
and going up this river with stores, or orders, or what you like.
Sand-banks, marshes, forests, savages,--precious little to eat fit for a
civilized man, nothing but Thames water to drink. No Falernian wine here,
no going ashore. Here and there a military camp lost in a wilderness,
like a needle in a bundle of hay--cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile,
and death--death skulking in the air, in the water, in the bush.
They must have been dying like flies here. Oh, yes--he did it.
Heart of Darkness |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: things. Thus he had passed his life as a sort of missionary in detecting
the pretended wisdom of mankind; and this occupation had quite absorbed him
and taken him away both from public and private affairs. Young men of the
richer sort had made a pastime of the same pursuit, 'which was not
unamusing.' And hence bitter enmities had arisen; the professors of
knowledge had revenged themselves by calling him a villainous corrupter of
youth, and by repeating the commonplaces about atheism and materialism and
sophistry, which are the stock-accusations against all philosophers when
there is nothing else to be said of them.
The second accusation he meets by interrogating Meletus, who is present and
can be interrogated. 'If he is the corrupter, who is the improver of the
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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 Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: that in a few days time Ernest de Restaud will come into a fortune to
which his title is unquestionable, a fortune which will put him in a
position to marry Mlle. Camille, even after adequate provision has
been made for his mother the Comtesse de Restaud and his sister and
brother."
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Bidault (known as Gigonnet)
The Government Clerks
The Vendetta
Cesar Birotteau
Gobseck |
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 Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: Wasters of body and brain, what race will the
future bring?
What of the nation's nerve whenas swift crises
come?
What of the brawn that should heave the guns on
the beck of the drum?
Thieves of body and soul, who can neither think
nor feel,
Swine-eyed priests of little false gods of gold and
steel,
Bow to your obscene altars, worship your loud
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