| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: mind, I have advised him to finish, in the quiet of this retreat, some
plays which were begun in his starvation days, and which are really
very fine. This is the only kind of literary work which can be done in
odd moments, for it requires long intervals of reflection, and does
not demand the elaborate pruning essential to a finished style. One
can't make a task-work of dialogue; there must be biting touches,
summings-up, and flashes of wit, which are the blossoms of the mind,
and come rather by inspiration than reflection. This sort of
intellectual sport is very much in my line. I assist Gaston in his
work, and in this way manage to accompany him even in the boldest
flights of his imagination. Do you see now how it is that my winter
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: glanced here and there in other directions; but by the time we got
to Doncaster the principal thing he had let me see was that he was
keeping something back. We stopped at that station, and, at the
carriage-door, some one made a movement to get in. Gravener
uttered a sound of impatience, and I felt sure that but for this I
should have had the secret. Then the intruder, for some reason,
spared us his company; we started afresh, and my hope of a
disclosure returned. My companion held his tongue, however, and I
pretended to go to sleep; in fact I really dozed for
discouragement. When I reopened my eyes he was looking at me with
an injured air. He tossed away with some vivacity the remnant of a
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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 Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: gesture. Poor Lavalliere, finding himself in so pitiable state, went
out of the room, but he had not even reached the tapestries of the
door, when Marie d'Annebaut again contemplated him, saying to herself,
"Ah! what a pity!" Then she fell into a state of great melancholy,
pitying in herself the gentleman, and became the more in love with him
because he was fruit three times forbidden.
"But for Maille," said she to him, one evening that she thought him
handsomer than unusual, "I would willingly take your disease. Together
we should then have the same terrors."
"I love you too well," said the brother, "not to be good."
And he left her to go to his beautiful Limeuil. You can imagine that
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
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 Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: " 'I deeply regret all that occurred during those troublous
times. The Boxers for a time overpowered the government, and even
brought their guns in and placed them on the walls of the palace.
Such a thing shall never occur again.'
"The table was covered with brilliantly coloured oilcloth, and
was without tablecloth or napkins properly so called, but we used
as napkins square, coloured bits of calico about the size of a
large bandana handkerchief. There were no flowers, the table
decorations consisting of large stands of cakes and fruit. I
speak of this because it was all changed at future audiences,
when the table was spread with snow-white cloths, and smiled with
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