| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: ferreting and perspicacious blue eyes, glassy and glacial, might be
taken for the model of that famous Eye, the formidable emblem of the
police, invented during the Revolution. Black silk gloves were on his
hands and he carried a switch. He was certainly some official
personage, for he showed in his bearing, in his way of taking snuff
and ramming it into his nose, the bureaucratic importance of an office
subordinate, one who signs for his superiors and acquires a passing
sovereignty by enforcing their orders.
The other man, whose dress was in the same style, but elegant and
elegantly put on and careful in its smallest detail, wore boots /a la/
Suwaroff which came high upon the leg above a pair of tight trousers,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: down, and trim eyebrows, and make cosmetics for the use of the
women, but we, the duennas of my lady, would never let them in, for
most of them have a flavour of agents that have ceased to be
principals; and if we are not relieved by Senor Don Quixote we shall
be carried to our graves with beards."
"I will pluck out my own in the land of the Moors," said Don
Quixote, "if I don't cure yours."
At this instant the Trifaldi recovered from her swoon and said, "The
chink of that promise, valiant knight, reached my ears in the midst of
my swoon, and has been the means of reviving me and bringing back my
senses; and so once more I implore you, illustrious errant,
Don Quixote |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: under water again?
You must remember that he is not a fish. A fish takes the water
in through his mouth continually, and it runs over his gills, and
out behind through his gill-covers. So the gills suck-up the air
out of the water, and send it into the fish's blood, just as they
do in the newt-larva.
Yes, I know.
But the whale breathes with lungs like you and me; and when he
goes under water he has to hold his breath, as you and I have.
What a long time he can hold it.
Yes. He is a wonderful diver. Some whales, they say, will keep
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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 Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: do so, neither in regular water-courses nor in sudden torrents after
rains and the melting of the snows."
"Ah, madame," said Farrabesche, "the rector, who thinks all the time
about the welfare of Montegnac, has guessed the reason, but he can't
find any proof of it. Since your arrival, he has made me trace the
path of the water from point to point through each ravine and valley.
I was returning yesterday, when I had the honor of meeting you, from
the base of the Roche-Vive, where I carefully examined the lay of the
land. Hearing the horses' feet, I came up to see who was there.
Monsieur Bonnet is not only a saint, madame; he is a man of great
knowledge. 'Farrabesche,' he said to me (I was then working on the
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