| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran: cities may be warned, with those who are round about her. Those who
believe in the last day believe therein, and they unto their prayers
will keep.
Who is more unjust than he who devises against God a lie, or says,
'I am inspired,' when he was not inspired at all? and who says, 'I
will bring down the like of what God has sent down;' but didst thou
see when the unjust are in the floods of death, and the angels stretch
forth their hands, 'Give ye forth your souls; to-day shall ye be
recompensed with the torment of disgrace, for that ye did say
against God what was not true, and were too proud to hear His signs
And ye come now single-handed as we created you at first, and ye
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: who raise them drive to the city in their own cabriolets to pay their
rents in good bank-bills, unless they send the money through their
agents in the markets. For this reason, the farms of the Seine-et-
Oise, Seine-et-Marne, the Oise, the Eure-et-Loir, the Lower Seine, and
the Loiret are so desirable that capital cannot always be invested
there at one and a half per cent. Compared to the returns on estates
in Holland, England, and Belgium, this result is enormous. But at one
hundred miles from Paris an estate requires such variety of working,
its products are so different in kind, that it becomes a business,
with all the risks attendant on manufacturing. The wealthy owner is
really a merchant, forced to look for a market for his products, like
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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 The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: Cygne received Dorlange--I should say, Sallenauve--in the warmest
manner. It was from them that we learned the history of Monsieur
Maxime de Trailles' mission and its present results. It seems that on
his arrival the ministerial agent received some attentions at Cinq-
Cygne,--mere floating sticks, to discover the set of his current. He
evidently flattered himself that he should find support at Cinq-Cygne
for his electioneering intrigue; which is so far from being the case
that Duc Georges de Maufrigneuse, to whom, as a Jockey Club comrade,
he told all his projects, gave us the information about them which I
have now given to you, and which, if you will be so kind, I should
like you to make over to Monsieur de l'Estorade.
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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 Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: me, it could make me silent and preoccupied, it robbed the days I had
spent of half their brightness and roused me into dark meditations
in the silence of the night. And as I stood and watched Evesham's
aeroplanes sweep to and fro--those birds of infinite ill omen--she
stood beside me watching me, perceiving the trouble indeed, but not
perceiving it clearly her eyes questioning my face, her expression
shaded with perplexity. Her face was grey because the sunset was
fading out of the sky. It was no fault of hers that she held me.
She had asked me to go from her, and again in the night time and
with tears she had asked me to go.
"At last it was the sense of her that roused me from my mood. I
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