| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: "And you've come for your clothes, I suppose, darling? Don't
listen to people who say that skirts are to be wider. I've
discovered a new woman--a Genius--and she absolutely swathes
you.... Her name's my secret; but we'll go to her together."
Susy rose from her engulphing armchair. "Do you mind if I go up
to my room? I'm rather tired--coming straight through."
"Of course, dear. I think there are some people coming to
dinner ... Mrs. Match will tell you. She has such a memory ....
Fulmer, where on earth are those cartoons of the music-room?"
Their voices pursued Susy upstairs, as, in Mrs. Match's
perpendicular wake, she mounted to the white-panelled room with
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: house, and though now almost an invalid, was by no means ready to
let matters rest, particularly as he heard that among the guests
was the young Duke of Cheshire, whose grand-uncle, Lord Francis
Stilton, had once bet a hundred guineas with Colonel Carbury that
he would play dice with the Canterville ghost, and was found the
next morning lying on the floor of the card-room in such a helpless
paralytic state, that though he lived on to a great age, he was
never able to say anything again but 'Double Sixes.' The story was
well known at the time, though, of course, out of respect to the
feelings of the two noble families, every attempt was made to hush
it up; and a full account of all the circumstances connected with
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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 Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: industries. The method of floating timber discovered by Jean Rouvet in
1549, which required certain convenient stations to intercept it, was
the making of Ville-aux-Fayes, which, up to that time, had been,
compared to Soulanges, a mere village. Ville-aux-Fayes became a
storage place for timber, which covered the shores of the two rivers
for a distance of over thirty miles. The work of taking out of the
water, computing the lost logs, and making the rafts which the Yonne
carried down to the Seine, brought together a large concourse of
workmen. Such a population increased consumption and encouraged trade.
Thus Ville-aux-Fayes, which had but six hundred inhabitants at the end
of the seventeenth century, had two thousand in 1790, and Gaubertin
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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 Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: abominable sell."
"And suppose you did warn him," Poiret went on, "didn't that
gentleman say that he was closely watched? You would spoil
everything."
"Anyhow," thought Mlle. Michonneau, "I can't abide him. He says
nothing but disagreeable things to me."
"But you can do better than that," Poiret resumed. "As that
gentleman said (and he seemed to me to be a very good sort of
man, besides being very well got up), it is an act of obedience
to the laws to rid society of a criminal, however virtuous he may
be. Once a thief, always a thief. Suppose he were to take it into
Father Goriot |
