| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: worth of canvas. His wife has six thousand francs a year in dowry, and
he lives with his father-in-law. The Vervelles and the Grassous, who
agree delightfully, keep a carriage, and are the happiest people on
earth. Pierre Grassou never emerges from the bourgeois circle, in
which he is considered one of the greatest artists of the period. Not
a family portrait is painted between the barrier du Trone and the rue
du Temple that is not done by this great painter; none of them costs
less than five hundred francs. The great reason which the bourgeois
families have for employing him is this:--
"Say what you will of him, he lays by twenty thousand francs a year
with his notary."
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: and she heard him say in the Parthian tongue:
"Not so, my Lord! For when saw I thee an hungered and fed
thee? Or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw I thee a
stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and clothed thee? When
saw I thee sick or in prison, and came unto thee? Three-and--
thirty years have I looked for thee; but I have never seen thy
face, nor ministered to thee, my King."
He ceased, and the sweet voice came again. And
again the maid heard it, very faint and far away. But now it
seemed as though she understood the words:
"Verily I say unto thee, Inasmuch as thou hast done it
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Vailima Prayers & Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson: EVENING
WE come before Thee, O Lord, in the end of thy day with
thanksgiving.
Our beloved in the far parts of the earth, those who are now
beginning the labours of the day what time we end them, and those
with whom the sun now stands at the point of noon, bless, help,
console, and prosper them.
Our guard is relieved, the service of the day is over, and the hour
come to rest. We resign into thy hands our sleeping bodies, our
cold hearths, and open doors. Give us to awake with smiles, give
us to labour smiling. As the sun returns in the east, so let our
|
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 Daisy Miller by Henry James: round at night. Well, so I am, but I suppose he knows I'm a lady.
I would scorn to scold him. Anyway, she says she's not engaged.
I don't know why she wanted you to know, but she said to me three times,
'Mind you tell Mr. Winterbourne.' And then she told me to ask
if you remembered the time you went to that castle in Switzerland.
But I said I wouldn't give any such messages as that. Only, if she
is not engaged, I'm sure I'm glad to know it."
But, as Winterbourne had said, it mattered very little.
A week after this, the poor girl died; it had been a terrible
case of the fever. Daisy's grave was in the little
Protestant cemetery, in an angle of the wall of imperial Rome,
|
