| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: harmed any one; who can wish for my death?
"There is somebody with her, somebody was listening at the door.
I have a feeling as if I was being watched. And yet - I examined
the door, but there is no crack anywhere and the key is in the lock.
Still I seem to feel a burning glance resting on me. Ah! the
parrot! is this another delusion? Oh God, let it end soon! I am
not yet quite insane, but all these unknown dangers around me will
drive me mad. I must fight against them.
"Thursday. They brought me back my travelling bag. My attendant
is uneasy. She was longer in cleaning up the room than usual to-day.
She seemed to want to say something to me, and yet she did not dare
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: not fail to be arrested by so perfect an interpretation of his
mood. He stood rooted, was carried back again in imagination to a
great artiste's rendering of that story of fierce passion and
aching desire so brilliantly enacted under the white sunbeat of a
country of cloudless skies. Imperceptibly she drifted into other
parts of the opera. Was it the wild, gypsy seductiveness of
_Carmen_ that he felt, or, rather, this American girl's
allurement? From "Love will like a birdling fly" she slipped into
the exquisitely graceful snatches of song with which _Carmen_
answers the officer's questions. Their rare buoyancy marched with
his mood, and from them she carried him into the song "Over the
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: again, and shedding that water out of the places she looks with.
I was obliged to return with her, but will presently emigrate again,
when occasion offers. She engages herself in many foolish things:
among others, trying to study out why the animals called lions and
tigers live on grass and flowers, when, as she says, the sort of
teeth they wear would indicate that they were intended to eat each
other. This is foolish, because to do that would be to kill each
other, and that would introduce what, as I understand it, is called
"death;" and death, as I have been told, has not yet entered the
Park. Which is a pity, on some accounts.
Sunday
|
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 The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: 'She is all that!' But I see I was judging from the outside. I know
now why you are living and will always live on a fourth floor in the
rue d'Enfer."
And he pointed his speech with an energetic gesture toward the
Colleville windows, which could be seen through the passage from the
alley of the Luxembourg, where they were walking alone, in that
immense tract trodden by so many and various young ambitions.
"I have been frank, and I expected reciprocity," resumed Theodose. "I
myself have had days without food, madame; I have managed to live,
pursue my studies, obtain my degree, with two thousand francs for my
sole dependence; and I entered Paris through the Barriere d'Italie,
|
