| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: wanted fancy prices for his goods; at any rate, every bargain hung in
suspense. He had not disposed of the eatables to Chevet, because
Chevet would only take them of him at a loss of thirty per cent.
Gobseck haggled for a few francs between the prices, and while they
wrangled the goods became unsalable. Again, Gobseck had refused free
delivery of his silver-plate, and declined to guarantee the weights of
his coffees. There had been a dispute over each article, the first
indication in Gobseck of the childishness and incomprehensible
obstinacy of age, a condition of mind reached at last by all men in
whom a strong passion survives the intellect.
"I said to myself, as he had said, 'To whom will all these riches go?'
Gobseck |
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 A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: still I am prepared to admit that I had rather have been compelled to
learn to read and write with tears by an incompetent and ill mannered
person than left in ignorance. Reading, writing, and enough
arithmetic to use money honestly and accurately, together with the
rudiments of law and order, become necessary conditions of a child's
liberty before it can appreciate the importance of its liberty, or
foresee that these accomplishments are worth acquiring. Nature has
provided for this by evolving the instinct of docility. Children are
very docile: they have a sound intuition that they must do what they
are told or perish. And adults have an intuition, equally sound, that
they must take advantage of this docility to teach children how to
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