| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: you--the Rue de Lesdiguieres. It is a turning out of the Rue Saint-
Antoine, beginning just opposite a fountain near the Place de la
Bastille, and ending in the Rue de la Cerisaie. Love of knowledge
stranded me in a garret; my nights I spent in work, my days in reading
at the Bibliotheque d'Orleans, close by. I lived frugally; I had
accepted the conditions of the monastic life, necessary conditions for
every worker, scarcely permitting myself a walk along the Boulevard
Bourdon when the weather was fine. One passion only had power to draw
me from my studies; and yet, what was that passion but a study of
another kind? I used to watch the manners and customs of the Faubourg,
its inhabitants, and their characteristics. As I dressed no better
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: thrown into the hole and covered up. Mitri felt
tired, and went into Matrena's hut, where he
drank half a bottle of vodka with Sanin to con-
sole himself. Then he went home, quarrelled
with his wife, and lay down to sleep on the hay.
He did not undress, but slept just as he was, with
a ragged coat for a coverlet. His wife was in
the hut with the girls--there were four of them,
and the youngest was only five weeks old. Mitri
woke up before dawn as usual. He groaned as
the memory of the day before broke in upon him
The Forged Coupon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: discharged the senate, in regard of some ill pres-
ages, and specially a dream of Calpurnia; this
man lifted him gently by the arm out of his chair,
telling him he hoped he would not dismiss the
senate, till his wife had dreamt a better dream.
And it seemeth his favor was so great, as Antonius,
in a letter which is recited verbatim in one of
Cicero's Philippics, calleth him venefica, witch;
as if he had enchanted Caesar. Augustus raised
Agrippa (though of mean birth) to that height, as
when he consulted with Maecenas, about the mar-
Essays of Francis Bacon |
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 Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: all the year round, it has a grim and sooty aspect among
its younger suburbs. It grew, under the law that
regulates the growth of walled cities in precarious
situations, not in extent, but in height and density.
Public buildings were forced, wherever there was room for
them, into the midst of thoroughfares; thorough - fares
were diminished into lanes; houses sprang up story after
story, neighbour mounting upon neighbour's shoulder, as
in some Black Hole of Calcutta, until the population
slept fourteen or fifteen deep in a vertical direction.
The tallest of these LANDS, as they are locally termed,
|
