| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: my neck out of the Cointets' yoke; but till then I shall hold on."
The tall Cointet thought, "I would rather have David under lock and
key, and then I should be master of the situation."
Old Sechard, too, thought, "If I pay my son's debts, he will repay me
with a 'Thank you!' "
Eve, hard pressed (for the old man threatened now to turn her out of
the house), would neither reveal her husband's hiding-place, nor even
send proposals of a safe-conduct. She could not feel sure of finding
so safe a refuge a second time.
"Set your son at liberty," she told her father-in-law, "and then you
shall know everything."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: back to their accustomed corners. Yet a little, and the
ostler would swing round the great barrier across the road;
and in the golden evening, that dreamy inn begin to trim its
lamps and spread the board for supper.
As I recall the place - the green dell below; the spires of
pine; the sun-warm, scented air; that gray, gabled inn, with
its faint stirrings of life amid the slumber of the mountains
- I slowly awake to a sense of admiration, gratitude, and
almost love. A fine place, after all, for a wasted life to
doze away in - the cuckoo clock hooting of its far home
country; the croquet mallets, eloquent of English lawns; the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: doctrine is to be referred to that conflict of the terrified
conscience, neither can it be understood apart from that
conflict. Therefore inexperienced and profane men judge ill
concerning this matter, who dream that Christian righteousness
is nothing but civil and philosophical righteousness.
Heretofore consciences were plagued with the doctrine of
works, they did not hear the consolation from the Gospel. Some
persons were driven by conscience into the desert, into
monasteries hoping there to merit grace by a monastic life.
Some also devised other works whereby to merit grace and make
satisfaction for sins. Hence there was very great need to
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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 The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: also, the strangest, most unaristocratic ideas, by no
means fitting in the wife of a high official. These
ideas she would express most unexpectedly, to
everybody's astonishment, her husband's no less
than her friends'.
"Fous pouvez me renvoyer, mais je ne m'en
irai pas, je vous le dis d'avance," she began, in her
characteristic, indifferent way.
"Dieu preserve," answered her brother-in-law,
with his usual somewhat exaggerated politeness,
and brought forward a chair for her.
The Forged Coupon |
