| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: was as patient and plodding as a soldier on the march. But beyond
this business horizon he could not see. He used to spend his
hours of leisure on the threshold of his shop, leaning against
the framework of the door. Take him from his dark little
counting-house, and he became once more the rough, slow-witted
workman, a man who cannot understand a piece of reasoning, who is
indifferent to all intellectual pleasures, and falls asleep at
the play, a Parisian Dolibom in short, against whose stupidity
other minds are powerless.
Natures of this kind are nearly all alike; in almost all of them
you will find some hidden depth of sublime affection. Two all-
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: back, he had an effect of inattention, not indifferent attention,
but as if he were thinking....
She could not see the eyes beneath his shaggy brows, but it was
evident he frowned. He frowned slightly, he had an air of not
wanting to be disturbed. His face still bore that expression of
assured confidence, that conviction that if things were left to
him France might obey in security....
She did not cry out to him again, but she crept a little nearer.
A strange surmise made her eyes dilate. With a painful wrench
she pulled herself up so that she could see completely over the
intervening lumps of smashed-up masonry. Her hand touched
The Last War: A World Set Free |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: increase of the kingly power, and opened the way to central
despotisms. The bourgeoisie, the commercial middle class, whatever
were its virtues, its value, its real courage, were never able to
stand alone against the kings. Their capital, being invested in
trade, was necessarily subject to such sudden dangers from war,
political change, bad seasons, and so forth, that its holders,
however individually brave, were timid as a class. They could never
hold out on strike against the governments, and had to submit to the
powers that were, whatever they were, under penalty of ruin.
But on the Continent, and especially in France and Germany, unable
to strengthen itself by intermarriage with the noblesse, they
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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 Phaedo by Plato: letter, are our arguments; and Socrates by anticipation may be even thought
to refute some 'eccentric notions; current in our own age. For there are
philosophers among ourselves who do not seem to understand how much
stronger is the power of intelligence, or of the best, than of Atlas, or
mechanical force. How far the words attributed to Socrates were actually
uttered by him we forbear to ask; for no answer can be given to this
question. And it is better to resign ourselves to the feeling of a great
work, than to linger among critical uncertainties.
PHAEDO
by
Plato
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