| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: an apoplectic fit.
" 'Well?' asked the Count, clapping Gobseck on the shoulder.
"The old boy trembled. He put down his playthings on his bureau, took
his seat, and was a money-lender once more--hard, cold, and polished
as a marble column.
" 'How much do you want?'
" 'One hundred thousand francs for three years,' said the Count.
" 'That is possible,' said Gobseck, and then from a mahogany box
(Gobseck's jewel-case) he drew out a faultlessly adjusted pair of
scales!
"He weighed the diamonds, calculating the value of stones and setting
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: galante."
"What times they were, when great nobles dressed the dancers!" said
Finot.
"Improper!" said Bixiou. "Isaure did not raise herself on the tips of
her toes, she stayed on the ground, she swayed in the dance without
jerks, and neither more nor less voluptuously than a young lady ought
to do. There was a profound philosophy in Marcel's remark that every
age and condition had its dance; a married woman should not dance like
a young girl, nor a little jackanapes like a capitalist, nor a soldier
like a page; he even went so far as to say that the infantry ought not
to dance like the cavalry, and from this point he proceeded to
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: written, before they wiped it out of existence and out of memory. How could
you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an
anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive?
The telescreen struck fourteen. He must leave in ten minutes. He had to be
back at work by fourteen-thirty.
Curiously, the chiming of the hour seemed to have put new heart into him.
He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so
long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken.
It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on
the human heritage. He went back to the table, dipped his pen, and wrote:
To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men
1984 |
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 Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: offered me his hand on getting in: an unnecessary piece of
civility, but I accepted that too, for fear of giving offence. One
glance he gave, one little smile at parting - it was but for a
moment; but therein I read, or thought I read, a meaning that
kindled in my heart a brighter flame of hope than had ever yet
arisen.
'I would have sent the footman back for you, Miss Grey, if you'd
waited a moment - you needn't have taken Mr. Weston's umbrella,'
observed Rosalie, with a very unamiable cloud upon her pretty face.
'I would have come without an umbrella, but Mr. Weston offered me
the benefit of his, and I could not have refused it more than I did
Agnes Grey |
