| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible.
We live, as we dream--alone. . . ."
He paused again as if reflecting, then added:
"Of course in this you fellows see more than I could then.
You see me, whom you know. . . ."
It had become so pitch dark that we listeners could hardly see
one another. For a long time already he, sitting apart, had been
no more to us than a voice. There was not a word from anybody.
The others might have been asleep, but I was awake.
I listened, I listened on the watch for the sentence, for the word,
that would give me the clue to the faint uneasiness inspired
Heart of Darkness |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: this hour of comic falsehood by the choicest art of dress; she was
there in her armchair like a flower, ready to blossom at the first
kiss of sunshine. True or false, she intoxicated Daniel.
It if is permissible to risk a personal opinion we must avow that it
would be delightful to be thus deceived for a good long time.
Certainly Talma on the stage was often above and beyond nature, but
the Princesse de Cadignan is the greatest true comedian of our day.
Nothing was wanting to this woman but an attentive audience.
Unfortunately, at epochs perturbed by political storms, women
disappear like water-lilies which need a cloudless sky and balmy
zephyrs to spread their bloom to our enraptured eyes.
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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 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: confused, but honest admiration; from the young squire's "Bless me!
who would have thought that there were so many wonderful things to
be seen in one's own park!" to the old squire's more morally
valuable "Bless me! why, I have seen that and that a hundred times,
and never thought till now how wonderful they were!"
There were great excuses, though, of old, for the contempt in which
the naturalist was held; great excuses for the pitying tone of
banter with which the Spectator talks of "the ingenious" Don
Saltero (as no doubt the Neapolitan gentleman talked of Ferrante
Imperato the apothecary, and his museum); great excuses for
Voltaire, when he classes the collection of butterflies among 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 An International Episode by Henry James: She went to balls and danced, she went to dinners and talked,
she went to concerts and listened (at concerts Bessie
always listened), she went to exhibitions and wondered.
Her enjoyment was keen and her curiosity insatiable, and,
grateful in general for all her opportunities, she especially
prized the privilege of meeting certain celebrated persons--
authors and artists, philosophers and statesmen--of whose
renown she had been a humble and distant beholder, and who now,
as a part of the habitual furniture of London drawing rooms,
struck her as stars fallen from the firmament and become palpable--
revealing also sometimes, on contact, qualities not to
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