| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: "Howsoever like no other be the mode you may employ,
There's an order in the ages for the ages to enjoy;
Though the temples you are shaping and the passions you are singing
Are a long way from Athens and a longer way from Troy.
"When we promise more than ever of what never shall arrive,
And you seem a little more than ordinarily alive,
Make a note that you are sure you understand our obligations --
For there's grief always auditing where two and two are five.
"There was this for us to say and there was this for you to know,
Though it humbles and it hurts us when we have to tell you so.
If you doubt the only truth in all our perjured composition,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: to this room. At the other end of the landing were the appartements of
the married pair, which occupied the whole front of the house. Madame
Grandet had a room next to that of Eugenie, which was entered through
a glass door. The master's chamber was separated from that of his wife
by a partition, and from the mysterious strong-room by a thick wall.
Pere Grandet lodged his nephew on the second floor, in the high
mansarde attic which was above his own bedroom, so that he might hear
him if the young man took it into his head to go and come. When
Eugenie and her mother reached the middle of the landing they kissed
each other for good-night; then with a few words of adieu to Charles,
cold upon the lips, but certainly very warm in the heart of the young
Eugenie Grandet |
