| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: slowly, dropping their lids with a movement of noble modesty. None but
a monster would have been capable of imagining hypocrisy in the
graceful undulation of the neck with which the princess again lifted
her charming head, to look once more into the eager eyes of that great
man.
"Can I? ought I?" she murmured, with a gesture of hesitation, gazing
at d'Arthez with a sublime expression of dreamy tenderness. "Men have
so little faith in things of this kind; they think themselves so
little bound to be discreet!"
"Ah! if you distrust me, why am I here?" cried d'Arthez.
"Oh, friend!" she said, giving to the exclamation the grace of an
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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 Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: formed a series of yellow ruffles on his breast; but upon him the lace
seemed rather a worthless rag than an ornament. In the centre of the
frill a diamond of inestimable value gleamed like a sun. That
superannuated splendor, that display of treasure, of great intrinsic
worth, but utterly without taste, served to bring out in still bolder
relief the strange creature's face. The frame was worthy of the
portrait. That dark face was full of angles and furrowed deep in every
direction; the chin was furrowed; there were great hollows at the
temples; the eyes were sunken in yellow orbits. The maxillary bones,
which his indescribable gauntness caused to protrude, formed deep
cavities in the centre of both cheeks. These protuberances, as the
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