| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: interest. The payment of interest was a remarkable event in the
Parisian commerce of that day. When the receipts were all legally
registered, and des Grassins had received for his services the sum of
fifty thousand francs allowed to him by Eugenie, the president made
his way to the hotel d'Aubrion and found Charles just entering his own
apartment after a serious encounter with his prospective father-in-
law. The old marquis had told him plainly that he should not marry his
daughter until all the creditors of Guillaume Grandet had been paid in
full.
The president gave Charles the following letter:--
My Cousin,--Monsieur le president de Bonfons has undertaken to
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: touch of Mercedes's hand upon his arm. Probably for her the
night had terrors beyond Gale's power to comprehend. He looked
down into the desert, and would have felt no surprise at anything hidden
away among the bristling cactus, the dark, winding arroyos, the shadowed
rocks with their moonlit tips, the ragged plain leading to the black
bold mountains. The wind appeared to blow softly, with an almost
imperceptible moan, over the desert. That was a new sound to Gale.
But he heard nothing more.
Presently Lash went to the rear and Ladd started ahead. The progress
now, however, was considerably slower, not owing to a road--for that
became better--but probably owing to caution exercised by the
Desert Gold |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: of tinsel--but still only the toys of nations; or else they are no
royalties at all, but tyrannies, or the mere active and practical
issue of national folly; for which reason I have said of them
elsewhere, "Visible governments are the toys of some nations, the
diseases of others, the harness of some, the burdens of more."
But I have no words for the wonder with which I hear Kinghood still
spoken of, even among thoughtful men, as if governed nations were a
personal property, and might be bought and sold, or otherwise
acquired, as sheep, of whose flesh their king was to feed, and whose
fleece he was to gather; as if Achilles' indignant epithet of base
kings, "people-eating," were the constant and proper title of all
|
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 Symposium by Xenophon: pipings; and particularly if you would use gesticulation like the
flute-girl, to suit the tenor of your speech.
Here Callias demanded: And when our friend (Antisthenes) essays to
cross-examine people[3] at a banquet, what kind of piping[4] should he
have?
[3] Or, "a poor body," in reference to the elentic onslaught made on
himself by Antisthenes above.
[4] {to aulema}, a composition for reed instruments, "music for the
flute." Cf. Aristoph. "Frogs," 1302.
Ant. The person in the witness-box would best be suited with a
serpent-hissing theme.[5]
The Symposium |
