| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: Few people know the importance of a hall in the little towns of Anjou,
Touraine, and Berry. The hall is at one and the same time antechamber,
salon, office, boudoir, and dining-room; it is the theatre of domestic
life, the common living-room. There the barber of the neighborhood
came, twice a year, to cut Monsieur Grandet's hair; there the farmers,
the cure, the under-prefect, and the miller's boy came on business.
This room, with two windows looking on the street, was entirely of
wood. Gray panels with ancient mouldings covered the walls from top to
bottom; the ceiling showed all its beams, which were likewise painted
gray, while the space between them had been washed over in white, now
yellow with age. An old brass clock, inlaid with arabesques, adorned
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: with great fluency, but always with that singing,
soft, and at the same time vibrating intonation that
instilled a strangely penetrating power into the
sound of the most familiar English words, as if
they had been the words of an unearthly language.
And he always would come to an end, with many
emphatic shakes of his head, upon that awful sen-
sation of his heart melting within him directly he
set foot on board that ship. Afterwards there
seemed to come for him a period of blank ignorance,
at any rate as to facts. No doubt he must have
Amy Foster |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: anything else. It was the first time he had exhibited that humorsome
tyranny, which, at a later date, contributed no less to his celebrity
than his talent and his vast fortune, which was said to be due to his
beauty as much as to his voice.
" 'It's a woman,' said Sarrasine, thinking that no one could overhear
him. 'There's some secret intrigue beneath all this. Cardinal
Cicognara is hoodwinking the Pope and the whole city of Rome!'
"The sculptor at once left the salon, assembled his friends, and lay
in wait in the courtyard of the palace. When Zambinella was assured of
Sarrasine's departure he seemed to recover his tranquillity in some
measure. About midnight after wandering through the salons like a man
|
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 Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: stop here to-night." He turned round, scratching
his head, evidently much put about. But think-
ing that my wife was white, he replied, "We have
plenty of room for the lady, but I don't know about
yourself; we never take in coloured folks." "Oh,
don't trouble about me," I said; "if you have room
for the lady, that will do; so please have the luggage
taken to a bed-room." Which was immediately done,
and my wife went upstairs into the apartment.
After taking a little walk in the town, I returned,
and asked to see the "lady." On being conducted
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
