| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: "Good God! suppose he kills him!" cried Madame Dumay, bursting into
tears.
"What is the matter?" asked Modeste, looking innocently at her friends
and not betraying the slightest fear.
"It is all about a young man who is hanging round the house," cried
Madame Latournelle.
"Well!" said Modeste, "why should Dumay kill him?"
"Sancta simplicita!" ejaculated Butscha, looking at his master as
proudly as Alexander is made to contemplate Babylon in Lebrun's great
picture.
"Where are you going, Modeste?" asked the mother as her daughter rose
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: "It appears," said the clergyman, satisfied with the effect he
had created, "that my man carefully washed out the bearings with
paraffin, and let the machine dry without oiling it again. The
consequence was that they became heated to a considerable
temperature and jammed. Even at the outset the machine ran
stiffly as well as noisily, and I, being inclined to ascribe this
stiffness to my own lassitude, merely redoubled my exertions."
"'Ot work all round," said Mr. Hoopdriver.
"You could scarcely put it more appropriately. It is my rule of
life to do whatever I find to do with all my might. I believe,
indeed, that the bearings became red hot. Finally one of the
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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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: one; and with facts which do not come under that canon they have
no concern. It may be true, for instance, that the eighteenth
century, which to the clergy is a period of scepticism, darkness,
and spiritual death, is the very century which saw more done for
science, for civilisation, for agriculture, for manufacture, for
the prolongation and support of human life than any preceding one
for a thousand years and more. What matter? That is a "secular"
question, of which they need know nothing. And sanitary reform
(if true) is just such another; a matter (as slavery has been seen
to be by the preachers of the United States) for the legislator,
and not for those whose kingdom is "not of this world."
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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 Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: "What has she to do with washing? Oh, you sweet innocent--
pardon my familiarity, but such ignorance of country-life customs
is very touching in one who is writing a book about them. "
"Oh, I have no doubt I am very ignorant," said Minora loftily.
"Seasons of washing," explained Irais, "are <217> seasons set apart
by the Hausfrau to be kept holy. They only occur every two or three months,
and while they are going on the whole house is in an uproar, every other
consideration sacrificed, husband and children sunk into insignificance,
and no one approaching, or interfering with the mistress of the house during
these days of purification, but at their peril."
"You Don't Really Mean," Said Minora, "that You Only Wash Your Clothes
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
