| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: similar inventiveness? Indeed, when one comes to consider what is
meant by advantages snatched in war, one will find, i think, that the
greater part of them, and those the more important, must be attributed
in some way or other to displays of craft;[8] which things being so, a
man had better either not attempt to exercise command, or, as part and
parcel of his general equipment, let him pray to Heaven to enable him
to exercise this faculty and be at pains himself to cultivate his own
inventiveness.
[6] Cf. "Cyrop." IV. ii. 26; VII. i. 18.
[7] {posinda}, lit. "How many?" (i.e. dice, nuts, marbles, etc.); cf.
the old game, "Buck! buck! how many horns do I hold up?" Schneid.
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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 Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: any more than in the house.
Meanwhile, during these hours of anxious seeking, the rumour of
another terrible crime had spread through the village, and a crowd
that grew from minute to minute gathered in front of the closed
gates to the rectory, in front of the church, the closed doors of
which did not open although it was a high feast day. The utter
silence from the steeple, where the bells hung mute, added to the
spreading terror. Finally the doctor came out from the rectory,
accompanied by the magistrate, and announced to the waiting
villagers that their venerable pastor had disappeared under
circumstances which left no doubt that he had met his death at
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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 Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: he was a doll. She had tried him as a Crusader, in which guise
he seemed plausible but heavy--"There IS something heavy about
him; I wonder if it's his mustache?"--and as a Hussar, which made
him preposterous, and as a Black Brunswicker, which was better,
and as an Arab sheik. Also she had tried him as a dragoman and
as a gendarme, which seemed the most suitable of all to his
severely handsome, immobile profile. She felt he would tell
people the way, control traffic, and refuse admission to public
buildings with invincible correctness and the very finest
explicit feelings possible. For each costume she had devised a
suitable form of matrimonial refusal. "Oh, Lord!" she said,
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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 Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: noise, now lost its decaying aspect in the eyes of Eugenie. It grew
luminous; it had a voice and spoke to her; it was young like herself,
--young like the love it was now serving. Her mother, her kind,
indulgent mother, lent herself to the caprices of the child's love,
and after the room was put in order, both went to sit with the unhappy
youth and keep him company. Does not Christian charity make
consolation a duty? The two women drew a goodly number of little
sophistries from their religion wherewith to justify their conduct.
Charles was made the object of the tenderest and most loving care. His
saddened heart felt the sweetness of the gentle friendship, the
exquisite sympathy which these two souls, crushed under perpetual
Eugenie Grandet |
