| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: general rudeness and coarseness in social intercourse -- all
this, and a great deal more which would take too long to reckon
up, affects me as much as any working man who is famous only in
his alley. In what way, does my exceptional position find
expression? Admitting that I am celebrated a thousand times over,
that I am a hero of whom my country is proud. They publish
bulletins of my illness in every paper, letters of sympathy come
to me by post from my colleagues, my pupils, the general public;
but all that does not prevent me from dying in a strange bed, in
misery, in utter loneliness. Of course, no one is to blame for
that; but I in my foolishness dislike my popularity. I feel as
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: his whole condition. Under the old French monarchy officers were
always called by their titles of nobility; they are now always
called by the title of their military rank. This little change
in the forms of language suffices to show that a great revolution
has taken place in the constitution of society and in that of the
army. In democratic armies the desire of advancement is almost
universal: it is ardent, tenacious, perpetual; it is strengthened
by all other desires, and only extinguished with life itself. But
it is easy to see, that of all armies in the world, those in
which advancement must be slowest in time of peace are the armies
of democratic countries. As the number of commissions is
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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 Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: of only bones and nerves,--guided the "soi-disant" foreigner silently
into a lower room, while Cornelius followed prudently behind him.
"Sit there," she said to Philippe, showing him a three-legged stool
placed at the corner of a carved stone fireplace, where there was no
fire.
On the other side of the chimney-piece was a walnut table with twisted
legs, on which was an egg in a plate and ten or a dozen little bread-
sops, hard and dry and cut with studied parsimony. Two stools placed
beside the table, on one of which the old woman sat down, showed that
the miserly pair were eating their suppers. Cornelius went to the door
and pushed two iron shutters into their place, closing, no doubt, the
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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 The Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: To music every summer leaping swain
Compares his sunburnt lover when she speaks;
And why should I speak of the nightingale?
The nightingale sings of adulterate wrong,
And that, compared, is too satyrical;
For sin, though sin, would not be so esteemed,
But, rather, virtue sin, sin virtue deemed.
Her hair, far softer than the silk worm's twist,
Like to a flattering glass, doth make more fair
The yellow Amber:--like a flattering glass
Comes in too soon; for, writing of her eyes,
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