| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: vision are the channel,[14] the despot has the disadvantage. Every
region of the world, each country on this fair earth, presents objects
worthy of contemplation, in quest of which the ordinary citizen will
visit, as the humour takes him, now some city [for the sake of
spectacles],[15] or again, the great national assemblies,[16] where
sights most fitted to entrance the gaze of multitudes would seem to be
collected.[17] But the despot has neither part nor lot in these high
festivals,[18] seeing it is not safe for him to go where he will find
himself at the mercy of the assembled crowds;[19] nor are his home
affairs in such security that he can leave them to the guardianship of
others, whilst he visits foreign parts. A twofold apprehension haunts
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cromwell by William Shakespeare: BEDFORD.
Well, farewell, Cromwell, the truest friend,
That ever Bedford shall possess again.--
Well, Lords, I fear, when this man is dead,
You'll wish in vain that Cromwell had a head.
[Enter one with Cromwell's head.]
OFFICER.
Here is the head of the deceased Cromwell.
BEDFORD.
Pray thee, go hence, and bear his head away
Unto his body; inter them both in clay.
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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 Message by Honore de Balzac: Then her tears were dried by the fires that burned in the dark
depths within her. She grew even paler. When I drew the letters
from beneath my pillow and held them out to her, she took them
mechanically; then, trembling from head to foot, she said in a
hollow voice:
"And _I_ burned all his letters!--I have nothing of him left!--
Nothing! nothing!"
She struck her hand against her forehead.
"Madame----" I began.
She glanced at me in the convulsion of grief.
"I cut this from his head, this lock of his hair."
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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 A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: here and there, by dead-gold lines. These panels were framed in relief
with figures of children playing with fantastic animals, among which
the light danced and floated, touching here a sketch by Bixiou, that
maker of caricatures, there the cast of an angel holding a vessel of
holy water (presented by Francois Souchet), farther on a coquettish
painting of Joseph Bridau, a gloomy picture of a Spanish alchemist by
Hippolyte Schinner, an autograph of Lord Byron to Lady Caroline Lamb,
framed in carved ebony, while, hanging opposite as a species of
pendant, was a letter from Napoleon to Josephine. All these things
were placed about without the slightest symmetry, but with almost
imperceptible art. On the chimney-piece, of exquisitely carved oak,
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