| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: his enjoyment of a practical joke, not realizing
that the resultant excitement of the scene would
react on his weak heart.
"Mr. Turnbull is survived by a great aunt; he had
no nearer relatives living. It is a singular
coincidence that the lawyer appointed by the
court to defend Turnbull was his intimate friend,
Philip Rochester, who made his home with the
deceased."
Kent read the column over and over, then, letting the paper slip
to the floor, sat back in his chair, too dumb-founded for words.
The Red Seal |
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 Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: principal asked a hundred and fifty thousand francs. Now an active
man, of competent knowledge and intelligence, might hope to pay off
the capital in ten years, paying interest and living respectably in
the meantime--if he could command confidence. But I as the seventh
child of a small tradesman at Noyon, I had not a sou to my name, nor
personal knowledge of any capitalist but Daddy Gobseck. An ambitious
idea, and an indefinable glimmer of hope, put heart into me. To
Gobseck I betook myself, and slowly one evening I made my way to the
Rue des Gres. My heart thumped heavily as I knocked at his door in the
gloomy house. I recollected all the things that he used to tell me, at
a time when I myself was very far from suspecting the violence of the
Gobseck |
