| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: to the object of his call. He had come, he said, not only to offer
her his warmest congratulations, but to express his regret that a
great work of art was to leave England.
Lady Treffinger looked at him in wide-eyed astonishment.
Surely, she said, she had been careful to select the best of the
pictures for the X--- gallery, in accordance with Sir Hugh
Treffinger's wishes.
"And did he--pardon me, Lady Treffinger, but in mercy set my
mind at rest--did he or did he not express any definite wish
concerning this one picture, which to me seems worth all the
others, unfinished as it is?"
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: "Yes," I answered, "you will need in the same way to stay indoors,
despatching to their toils without those of your domestics whose work
lies there. Over those whose appointed tasks are wrought indoors, it
will be your duty to preside; yours to receive the stuffs brought in;
yours to apportion part for daily use, and yours to make provision for
the rest, to guard and garner it so that the outgoings destined for a
year may not be expended in a month. It will be your duty, when the
wools are introduced, to see that clothing is made for those who need;
your duty also to see that the dried corn is rendered fit and
serviceable for food.
"There is just one of all these occupations which devolve upon you," I
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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 Sophist by Plato: (which differs among the Hellenes from mere instruction in the arts) cures
the ignorance of the soul. Again, ignorance is twofold, simple ignorance,
and ignorance having the conceit of knowledge. And education is also
twofold: there is the old-fashioned moral training of our forefathers,
which was very troublesome and not very successful; and another, of a more
subtle nature, which proceeds upon a notion that all ignorance is
involuntary. The latter convicts a man out of his own mouth, by pointing
out to him his inconsistencies and contradictions; and the consequence is
that he quarrels with himself, instead of quarrelling with his neighbours,
and is cured of prejudices and obstructions by a mode of treatment which is
equally entertaining and effectual. The physician of the soul is aware
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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 Blix by Frank Norris: made all the firmer by the position of her chin upon her hand. As
ever, her round, strong neck was swathed high and tight in white
satin; but between the topmost fold of the satin and the rose of
one small ear-lobe was a little triangle of white skin, that was
partly her neck and partly her cheek, and that Condy knew should
be softer than down, smoother than satin, warm and sweet and
redolent as new apples. Condy imagined himself having the right
to lean toward her there and kiss that little spot upon her neck
or her cheek; and as he fancied it, was surprised to find his
breath come suddenly quick, and a barely perceptible qualm, as of
a certain faintness, thrill him to his finger-tips; and then, he
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