| 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: which served his cause much better with Camusot than the humility with
which he would otherwise have approached him.
"Sir," said he, "the words let fall last evening may have surprised
you, but they are serious. The house of d'Esgrignon counts upon you
for the proper conduct of investigations from which it must issue
without a spot."
"I shall pass over anything in your remarks, sir, which must be
offensive to me personally, and obnoxious to justice; for your
position with regard to the d'Esgrignons excuses you up to a certain
point, but----"
"Pardon me, sir, if I interrupt you," said Chesnel. "I have just
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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 Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: about it, and those deeply sunken eyes, which gleamed like fires
within the entrance of a mysterious cavern. But, as he closed the
door, the stranger turned towards him, and spoke in a quiet,
familiar way, that made Bartram feel as if he were a sane and
sensible man, after all.
"Your task draws to an end, I see," said he. "This marble has
already been burning three days. A few hours more will convert
the stone to lime."
"Why, who are you?" exclaimed the lime-burner. "You seem as well
acquainted with my business as I am myself."
"And well I may be," said the stranger; "for I followed the same
The Snow Image |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: when Dick, in his more advanced state of proficiency, became
dubious of the propriety of so daring a deviation to execute a
picture of the publican himself in exchange for this juvenile
production, the courteous offer was declined by his judicious
employer, who had observed, it seems, that when his ale failed to
do its duty in conciliating his guests, one glance at his sign
was sure to put them in good humour.
It would be foreign to my present purpose to trace the steps by
which Dick Tinto improved his touch, and corrected, by the rules
of art, the luxuriance of a fervid imagination. The scales fell
from his eyes on viewing the sketches of a contemporary, the
The Bride of Lammermoor |
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 Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: grandfather, in particular, seems to have been possessed with
a demon of activity in travel. In 1802, by direction of the
Northern Lighthouse Board, he had visited the coast of England
from St. Bees, in Cumberland, and round by the Scilly Islands
to some place undecipherable by me; in all a distance of 2500
miles. In 1806 I find him starting `on a tour round the south
coast of England, from the Humber to the Severn.' Peace was
not long declared ere he found means to visit Holland, where
he was in time to see, in the navy-yard at Helvoetsluys,
`about twenty of Bonaparte's ENGLISH FLOTILLA lying in a state
of decay, the object of curiosity to Englishmen.' By 1834 he
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