| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: design, fragments of which would sometimes fall unexpectedly, and
the wall-papers were bold and gigantic in pattern and much
variegated by damp and ill-mended rents.
As my father was quite unable to let more than one of these houses
at a time, and that for the most part to eccentric and undesirable
tenants, he thought it politic to live in one of the two others, and
devote the rent he received from the let one, when it was let, to
the incessant necessary repairing of all three. He also did some of
the repairing himself and, smoking a bull-dog pipe the while, which
my mother would not allow him to do in the house, he cultivated
vegetables in a sketchy, unpunctual and not always successful manner
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: for by the voice of the very factions whose misrule had proved
the necessity of it."
Jefferson has also thus expressed himself in a letter to
Madison: *g "The executive power in our Government is not the
only, perhaps not even the principal, object of my solicitude.
The tyranny of the Legislature is really the danger most to be
feared, and will continue to be so for many years to come. The
tyranny of the executive power will come in its turn, but at a
more distant period." I am glad to cite the opinion of Jefferson
upon this subject rather than that of another, because I consider
him to be the most powerful advocate democracy has ever sent
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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 Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: partly insane, at least by the more distant acquaintances. The
principal thing was to get away. I put my trust in the good-
natured Solary's very civil letter to my uncle, though I was
shocked a little by the phrase about the metier de chien.
This Solary (Baptistin), when I beheld him in the flesh, turned
out a quite young man, very good-looking, with a fine black,
short beard, a fresh complexion, and soft, merry black eyes. He
was as jovial and good-natured as any boy could desire. I was
still asleep in my room in a modest hotel near the quays of the
old port, after the fatigues of the journey via Vienna, Zurich,
Lyons, when he burst in flinging the shutters open to the sun of
Some Reminiscences |
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 Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: will care for him well." The servant assured the matron that this
would be so and gave her a large gift to maintain the house and its
charitable work. As she handed him the child, she said, "The woman
who has been nursing the child says that this parting is like a
death to her, for she has become very attached to him. But she
loves him too much to think of her feelings. I hope that what is a
sadness for her will be a happiness for the child."
"Truly, good woman," replied the servant, "it is rightly said that
the death of every fruit is the seed of new life. Every ending is
also a beginning."
As the years passed, the baby grew up into a fine, strong young man.
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