| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: then he went to Mme. de Beauseant, and received one of the
terrible blows against which young hearts are defenceless.
Hitherto the Vicomtesse had received him with the kindly
urbanity, the bland grace of manner that is the result of fine
breeding, but is only complete when it comes from the heart.
Today Mme. de Beauseant bowed constrainedly, and spoke curtly:
"M. de Rastignac, I cannot possibly see you, at least not at this
moment. I am engaged . . ."
An observer, and Rastignac instantly became an observer, could
read the whole history, the character and customs of caste, in
the phrase, in the tones of her voice, in her glance and bearing.
Father Goriot |
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 End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: strewn on the teakwood planking all over the veranda.
The flowering creepers scented the air. Their foliage
clipped out between the uprights made as if several
frames of thick unstirring leaves reflecting the lamp-
light in a green glow. Through the opening at his
elbow Captain Whalley could see the gangway lantern
of the Sofala burning dim by the shore, the shadowy
masses of the town beyond the open lustrous darkness
of the river, and, as if hung along the straight edge
of the projecting eaves, a narrow black strip of the
night sky full of stars--resplendent. The famous cigar
End of the Tether |
