| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: shrewd, half-mocking lips that scoff at fate, the neck and shoulders
of the strong man who cuts his wood to cook his dinner while the
doctrinaires of his opinions talk.
Such, at forty years of age on the breaking out of the Revolution, was
this man, strong as iron, pure as gold. Advocate of the people, he
believed in a republic through the very roll of that name, more
formidable in sound perhaps than in reality. He believed in the
republic of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in the brotherhood of man, in the
exchange of noble sentiments, in the proclamation of virtue, in the
choice of merit without intrigue,--in short, in all that the narrow
limits of one arrondissement like Sparta made possible, and which the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: People itself, such being the law and custom at Athens. He is
compelled to behave as a suppliant[49] in the courts of justice, and
when some juryman comes into court, to grasp his hand. For this
reason, therefore, the allies find themselves more and more in the
position of slaves to the people of Athens.
[40] Grote, "H. G." vi. 61.
[41] See Isocr. "Panath." 245 D.
[42] See Arist. "Clouds," 1196; Demosth. "c. Timoc." 730.
[43] For the "Prytaneia," see Aristot. "Pol." ii. 12, 4. "Ephialtes
and Pericles curtailed the privileges of the Areopagus, Pericles
converted the Courts of Law into salaried bodies, and so each
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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 Timaeus by Plato: supposes that God is immanent in the world, sometimes that he is
transcendent. And having no distinction of objective and subjective, he
passes imperceptibly from one to the other; from intelligence to soul, from
eternity to time. These contradictions may be softened or concealed by a
judicious use of language, but they cannot be wholly got rid of. That an
age of intellectual transition must also be one of inconsistency; that the
creative is opposed to the critical or defining habit of mind or time, has
been often repeated by us. But, as Plato would say, 'there is no harm in
repeating twice or thrice' (Laws) what is important for the understanding
of a great author.
It has not, however, been observed, that the confusion partly arises out of
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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 Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: father." (Here the old man looked cunningly at her.) "David has told
me scores of times that you loved him in your way," she added, looking
at her father-in-law, and understanding his suspicions.
Petit-Claud was only following out the tall Cointet's instructions. He
was widening the breach between the father and son, lest Sechard
senior should extricate David from his intolerable position. "The day
that David Sechard goes to prison shall be the day of your
introduction to Mme. de Senonches," the "tall Cointet" had said no
longer ago than yesterday.
Mme. Sechard, with the quick insight of love, had divined Petit-
Claud's mercenary hostility, even as she had once before felt
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