| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: difficulty, and descended the steps to the hansom. The tired
driver looked up as he approached, and asked where he was to go
next.
Michael observed that Morris had followed him to the steps; a
brilliant inspiration came to him. 'Anything t' give pain,' he
reflected. . . . 'Drive Shcotlan' Yard,' he added aloud, holding
to the wheel to steady himself; 'there's something devilish
fishy, cabby, about those cousins. Mush' be cleared up! Drive
Shcotlan' Yard.'
'You don't mean that, sir,' said the man, with the ready sympathy
of the lower orders for an intoxicated gentleman. 'I had better
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: wins, he will not be admired, but be envied rather, when is is thought
how many private fortunes go to swell the stream of his expenditure;
while if he loses, he will become a laughing-stock to all mankind.[9]
[9] Or, "you will be mocked and jeered at past all precedence," as
historically was the fate of Dionysus, 388 or 384 B.C. (?); and
for the possible connection between that incident and this
treatise see Lys. "Olymp."; and Prof. Jebb's remarks on the
fragment, "Att. Or." i. p. 203 foll. Grote, "H. G." xi. 40 foll.;
"Plato, iii. 577.
No, no! I tell you, Hiero, your battlefield, your true arena is with
the champion presidents of rival states, above whose lesser heads be
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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 Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: known to me," as though his power were nought.
"What!" cried Wilfrid, in despair, "can the riches of art, the riches
of worlds, the splendors of a court--"
She stopped him by a single inflexion of her lips, and said, "Beings
more powerful than you have offered me far more."
"Thou hast no soul," he cried,--"no soul, if thou art not persuaded by
the thought of comforting a great man, who is willing now to sacrifice
all things to live beside thee in a little house on the shores of a
lake."
"But," she said, "I am loved with a boundless love."
"By whom?" cried Wilfrid, approaching Seraphita with a frenzied
Seraphita |
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 Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: crowd about the Club's refreshment tent and another about the
Staff's, while the hills sat round in an indifferent circle; but it
appealed to me with a kind of family feeling that afternoon, and
inspired me with tolerance, even benevolence.
'After all,' I said, 'it's mainly youth and high spirits--two good
things. And one knows them all.'
'And who are they to know?' complained Dora.
'Just decent young Englishmen and Englishwomen, out here on their
country's business,' I replied cheerfully; 'with the marks of Oxford
and Cambridge and Sandhurst and Woolwich on the men. Well-set-up
youngsters, who know what to do and how to do it. Oh, I like the
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