| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: indefinitely; he deliberately shut his eyes to the inevitable results
of the system. In that dissipated set, in the continual whirl of
gaiety, people take the actors in their brilliant costumes as they
find them, no one inquires whether a man can afford to make the figure
he does, there is nothing in worse taste than inquiries as to ways and
means. A man ought to renew his wealth perpetually, and as Nature does
--below the surface and out of sight. People talk if somebody comes to
grief; they joke about a newcomer's fortune till their minds are set
at rest, and at this they draw the line. Victurnien d'Esgrignon, with
all the Faubourg Saint-Germain to back him, with all his protectors
exaggerating the amount of his fortune (were it only to rid themselves
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: to Syria and the Nile. At the same time he recognised that the
scheme of Rome's empire was worked out under the aegis of God's
will. (14) For, as one of the Middle Age scribes most truly says,
the [Greek text which cannot be reproduced] of Polybius is that
power which we Christians call God; the second aim, as one may call
it, of his history is to point out the rational and human and
natural causes which brought this result, distinguishing, as we
should say, between God's mediate and immediate government of the
world.
With any direct intervention of God in the normal development of
Man, he will have nothing to do: still less with any idea of
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: modishly crippling skirt, past officers, past customs officials,
into the section where stood the one small sample-trunk that she
had ordered down in case of emergency. The trunk had not gone
through the customs. It had not even been opened. But Emma
McChesney heeded not trifles like that. Rio de Janeiro had
fallen for Featherlooms. Those three samples, Nos. 79, 65, and
48, that boasted style, cut, and workmanship never before seen in
Rio, had turned the trick. They were as a taste of blood to a
hungry lion. Rio wanted more!
Emma McChesney was kneeling before her trunk, had whipped out her
key, unlocked it, and was swiftly selecting the numbers wanted
Emma McChesney & Co. |
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 The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: thirds empty. Then he bade him good speed, and Gluck went on again
merrily. And the path became easier to his feet, and two or three
blades of grass appeared upon it, and some grasshoppers began
singing on the bank beside it, and Gluck thought he had never heard
such merry singing.
Then he went on for another hour, and the thirst increased
on him so that he thought he should be forced to drink. But as
he raised the flask he saw a little child lying panting by the
roadside, and it cried out piteously for water. Then Gluck
struggled with himself and determined to bear the thirst a little
longer; and he put the bottle to the child's lips, and it drank
|
