| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: love with Tullia, poor devil.
" 'Tullia' (so he said) 'had left the stage to be his alone, to be a
good and charming wife.' And somehow Tullia managed to induce the most
Puritanical members of du Bruel's family to accept her. From the very
first, before any one suspected her motives, she assiduously visited
old Mme. de Bonfalot, who bored her horribly; she made handsome
presents to mean old Mme. de Chisse, du Bruel's great-aunt; she spent
a summer with the latter lady, and never missed a single mass. She
even went to confession, received absolution, and took the sacrament;
but this, you must remember, was in the country, and under the aunt's
eyes.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: three unhung rascals to gain Lutha and have their way
with the weak and cowardly king who reigned there.
If he could but reach Von der Tann's ear and through
him the king before the conspirators came to Lutha! But
how might he accomplish it? Count Zellerndorf's parting
words to the three had shown that military passes were
necessary to enable one to reach Lutha.
His papers were practically worthless even inside the lines.
That they would carry him through the lines he had not
the slightest hope. There were two things to be accomplished
if possible. One was to cross the frontier into Lutha; and
The Mad King |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: admit that there are differences of arts?
ION: Yes.
SOCRATES: You would argue, as I should, that when one art is of one kind
of knowledge and another of another, they are different?
ION: Yes.
SOCRATES: Yes, surely; for if the subject of knowledge were the same,
there would be no meaning in saying that the arts were different,--if they
both gave the same knowledge. For example, I know that here are five
fingers, and you know the same. And if I were to ask whether I and you
became acquainted with this fact by the help of the same art of arithmetic,
you would acknowledge that we did?
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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 Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: voyage, sometimes by learning from the sailors the art of
navigation, which I have never practised, and sometimes by forming
schemes for my conduct in different situations, in not one of which
I have been ever placed.
"I was almost weary of my naval amusements when we safely landed at
Surat. I secured my money and, purchasing some commodities for
show, joined myself to a caravan that was passing into the inland
country. My companions, for some reason or other, conjecturing
that I was rich, and, by my inquiries and admiration, finding that
I was ignorant, considered me as a novice whom they had a right to
cheat, and who was to learn, at the usual expense, the art of
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