| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: Holland. Mansions of white stone are replacing the old brick
buildings, and the cosy comfort of Batavian interiors is fast yielding
before the capricious elegance of Parisian novelties.
The house in which the events of this history occurred stands at about
the middle of the rue de Paris, and has been known at Douai for more
than two centuries as the House of Claes. The Van Claes were formerly
one of the great families of craftsmen to whom, in various lines of
production, the Netherlands owed a commercial supremacy which it has
never lost. For a long period of time the Claes lived at Ghent, and
were, from generation to generation, the syndics of the powerful Guild
of Weavers. When the great city revolted under Charles V., who tried
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: activity which prevailed in the latter half of the fourth century B.C.;
what eddies and whirlpools of controversies were surging in the chaos of
thought, what transformations of the old philosophies were taking place
everywhere, what eclecticisms and syncretisms and realisms and nominalisms
were affecting the mind of Hellas. The decline of philosophy during this
period is no less remarkable than the loss of freedom; and the two are not
unconnected with each other. But of the multitudinous sea of opinions
which were current in the age of Aristotle we have no exact account. We
know of them from allusions only. And we cannot with advantage fill up the
void of our knowledge by conjecture: we can only make allowance for our
ignorance.
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