| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: take us to lunch at their house without ceremony. I admired the
good lady's sweet patience. The husband was a conciliatory soul,
with a great fund of resignation, which he expended on "Roger's
friends." I suspect he was secretly horrified at these invasions.
But it was a Carlist salon, and as such we were made welcome. The
possibility of raising Catalonia in the interest of the REY NETTO,
who had just then crossed the Pyrenees, was much discussed there.
Don Carlos, no doubt, must have had many queer friends (it is the
common lot of all Pretenders), but amongst them none more
extravagantly fantastic than the Tremolino Syndicate, which used to
meet in a tavern on the quays of the old port. The antique city of
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: Parry.
Whilst the unknown was viewing these lights with interest,
and lending an ear to the various noises, Master Cropole
entered his apartment, followed by two attendants, who laid
the cloth for his meal.
The stranger did not pay them the least attention; but
Cropole approaching him respectfully, whispered " Monsieur,
the diamond has been valued."
"Ah!" said the traveler. "Well?"
"Well, monsieur, the jeweler of S. A. R. gives two hundred
and eighty pistoles for it."
Ten Years Later |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: perhaps a very natural one; I find few greater pleasures than
reading my own works, but I never, O I never read THE BLACK ARROW.
In that country Tomarcher reigns supreme. Well, and after all, if
Tomarcher likes it, it has not been written in vain.
We have just now a curious breath from Europe. A young fellow just
beginning letters, and no fool, turned up here with a letter of
introduction in the well-known blue ink and decorative hieroglyphs
of George Meredith. His name may be known to you. It is Sidney
Lysaght. He is staying with us but a day or two, and it is strange
to me and not unpleasant to hear all the names, old and new, come
up again. But oddly the new are so much more in number. If I
|
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 Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: provided only we abstain from accepting the false for the true, and
always preserve in our thoughts the order necessary for the deduction
of one truth from another. And I had little difficulty in determining
the objects with which it was necessary to commence, for I was already
persuaded that it must be with the simplest and easiest to know, and,
considering that of all those who have hitherto sought truth in the sciences,
the mathematicians alone have been able to find any demonstrations, that is,
any certain and evident reasons, I did not doubt but that such must have been
the rule of their investigations. I resolved to commence, therefore, with the
examination of the simplest objects, not anticipating, however, from this any
other advantage than that to be found in accustoming my mind to the love and
Reason Discourse |
