| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: savage beauty of a world unmarred by man,
The river leaped, shouting, down its double stairway of granite,
rejoicing like a strong man to run a race. The after-glow in the
western sky deepened from saffron to violet among the tops of the
cedars, and over the cliffs rose the moonlight, paling the heavens
but glorifying the earth. There was something large and generous
and untrammelled in the scene, recalling one of Walt Whitman's
rhapsodies:--
"Earth of departed sunsets! Earth of the mountains misty-topped!
Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue!
Earth of shine and dark, mottling the tide of the river!"
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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 The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: moment the whole household believes me to be asleep in my room. In two
days be at the same spot, say the same word to the same man. That man
is my foster-father. Cristemio worships me, and would die in torments
for me before they could extract one word against me from him.
Farewell," she said seizing Henri by the waist and twining round him
like a serpent.
She pressed him on every side at once, lifted her head to his, and
offered him her lips, then snatched a kiss which filled them both with
such a dizziness that it seemed to Henri as though the earth opened;
and Paquita cried: "Enough, depart!" in a voice which told how little
she was mistress of herself. But she clung to him still, still crying
 The Girl with the Golden Eyes |