| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: them; not merely daring and endurance, but, better still, temper,
self-restraint, fairness, honour, unenvious approbation of
another's success, and all that "give and take" of life which
stand a man in such good stead when he goes forth into the world,
and without which, indeed, his success is always maimed and
partial.
Now: if the promoters of higher education for women will compel
girls to any training analogous to our public-school games; if,
for instance, they will insist on that most natural and wholesome
of all exercises, dancing, in order to develop the lower half of
the body; on singing, to expand the lungs and regulate the breath;
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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 Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: slept like a child, awoke the next morning fresh and rosy, and dressed
to go to the Tuileries, with the intention of taking a ride, after
having seen Paquita, in order to get himself an appetite and dine the
better, and so kill the time.
At the hour mentioned Henri was on the boulevard, saw the carriage,
and gave the counter-word to a man who looked to him like the mulatto.
Hearing the word, the man opened the door and quickly let down the
step. Henri was so rapidly carried through Paris, and his thoughts
left him so little capacity to pay attention to the streets through
which he passed, that he did not know where the carriage stopped. The
mulatto let him into a house, the staircase of which was quite close
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: only indeed the prime cost of production. The general public,
of course, cared little for such literature, but those interested
in the origin and progress of any particular art, cared much,
and many sets of Patents were purchased by those engaged in research.
But the great bulk of the stock was, to some extent, inconvenient,
and so when a removal to other offices, in 1879, became necessary,
the question arose as to what could be done with them.
These blue-books, which had cost the nation many thousands
of pounds, were positively sold to the paper mills as wastepaper,
and nearly 100 tons weight were carted away at about L3 per ton.
It is difficult to believe, although positively true,
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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 Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: "You might have asked, I think," says I.
"And so I did," says he. "But you must have seen for yourself,
unless you're blind, that the asking got the other way. I'll go as
far as I dare for another white man; but when I find I'm in the
scrape myself, I think first of my own bacon. The loss of me is
I'm too good-natured. And I'll take the freedom of telling you you
show a queer kind of gratitude to a man who's got into all this
mess along of your affairs."
"There's a thing I am thinking of," said I. "You were a fool to be
so much about with Vigours. One comfort, you haven't been much
about with me. I notice you've never been inside my house. Own up
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