| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: spring some moujiks were working on a railway embankment. You
know what a peasant's food is,--bread, kvass,* onions. With this
frugal nourishment he lives, he is alert, he makes light work in
the fields. But on the railway this bill of fare becomes cacha
and a pound of meat. Only he restores this meat by sixteen hours
of labor pushing loads weighing twelve hundred pounds.
*Kvass, a sort of cider.
"And we, who eat two pounds of meat and game, we who absorb all
sorts of heating drinks and food, how do we expend it? In
sensual excesses. If the valve is open, all goes well; but close
it, as I had closed it temporarily before my marriage, and
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: the second, knife in hand, we must cut away and deduct the
needless arborescence of his nature, but the trunk and the
few branches that remain we may at least be fairly sure of.
On a chill September morning, by the cheek of a brisk fire,
and the rain drumming on the window, I began THE SEA COOK,
for that was the original title. I have begun (and finished)
a number of other books, but I cannot remember to have sat
down to one of them with more complacency. It is not to be
wondered at, for stolen waters are proverbially sweet. I am
now upon a painful chapter. No doubt the parrot once
belonged to Robinson Crusoe. No doubt the skeleton is
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: servants' heads and that they grasped the opportunity and shoved
all the blame on her." Peter Gerasimovitch spoke so irritably
that the foreman became irritated too, and went on obstinately
defending the opposite views; but Peter Gerasimovitch spoke so
convincingly that the majority agreed with him, and decided that
Maslova was not guilty of stealing the money and that the ring
was given her.
But when the question of her having taken part in the poisoning
was raised, her zealous defender, the merchant, declared that she
must be acquitted, because she could have no reason for the
poisoning. The foreman, however, said that it was impossible to
Resurrection |
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: be loved? In Henri's case, Paquita had established herself by both of
these reasons. But at this moment, seized as he was by the satiety of
his happiness, that delicious melancholy of the body, he could hardly
analyze his heart, even by recalling to his lips the taste of the
liveliest gratifications that he had ever grasped.
He found himself on the Boulevard Montmartre at the break of day,
gazed stupidly at the retreating carriage, produced two cigars from
his pocket, lit one from the lantern of a good woman who sold brandy
and coffee to workmen and street arabs and chestnut venders--to all
the Parisian populace which begins its work before daybreak; then he
went off, smoking his cigar, and putting his hands in his trousers'
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
