| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: In 1758, shortly after the death of the Prince of Prussia
Swedenborg came to court, where he was in the habit of attending
regularly. He had scarcely entered the queen's presence before she
said to him: "Well, Mr. Assessor, have you seen my brother?"
Swedenborg answered no, and the queen rejoined: "If you do see
him, greet him for me." In saying this she meant no more than a
pleasant jest, and had no thought whatever of asking him for
information about her brother. Eight days later (not twenty-four
as stated, nor was the audience a private one), Swedenborg again
came to court, but so early that the queen had not left her
apartment called the White Room, where she was conversing with her
Seraphita |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: the moment when the passing traveler was looking through the desert.
It was during the long hours, when he had abandoned hope, that he
amused himself with the panther. He had come to learn the different
inflections of her voice, the expressions of her eyes; he had studied
the capricious patterns of all the rosettes which marked the gold of
her robe. Mignonne was not even angry when he took hold of the tuft at
the end of her tail to count her rings, those graceful ornaments which
glittered in the sun like jewelry. It gave him pleasure to contemplate
the supple, fine outlines of her form, the whiteness of her belly, the
graceful pose of her head. But it was especially when she was playing
that he felt most pleasure in looking at her; the agility and youthful
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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 Symposium by Xenophon: [103] Or, "has grown amorous to a degree" [al. "an adept in love's
lore himself." Cf. Plat. "Rep." 474 D, "an authority in love."--
Jowett] "for the simple reason he can't forget each lovely thing
he once has seen." Through the "ars memoriae" of Hippias, it
becomes an "idee fixe" of the mind.
[104] Perhaps Zeuxippus. See Plat. "Prot." 318 B. Al. Zeuxis, also a
native of Heraclea. See "Mem." I. iv. 3; "Econ." x. 1.
[105] Or, "introduced him to me." Cf. "Econ." iii. 14; Plat. "Lach."
200 D.
[106] "An out-and-out {kalos te kagathos}."
[107] Who this Phliasian is, no one knows.
The Symposium |
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 Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: ready at all times to deliver them, was in his commercially mature mind.
This time he had brought a neat piece of paper with him, and wrote upon
it, "Called, three P.M.," and signed it as before, and departed to his
room with a sense of fulfilled obligations.
Bertie and Billy had lunched at Mattapan quite happily on cold ham, cold
pie, and doughnuts. Mattapan, not being accustomed to such lilies of
the field, stared at their clothes and general glory, but observed that
they could eat the native bill-of-fare as well as anybody. They found
some good, cool beer, moreover, and spoke to several people of the
Bird-in-Hand, and got several answers: for instance, that the
Bird-in-Hand was at Hingham; that it was at Nantasket; that they had
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