| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: nation in a more tractable humour; La France, like a tired woman,
was ready to agree to anything; never was mismanagement so
clumsy; and La France, like a woman, would have forgiven wrongs
more easily than bungling.
If the noblesse meant to reinstate themselves, the better to
found a strong oligarchy, they should have honestly and
diligently searched their Houses for men of the stamp that
Napoleon used; they should have turned themselves inside out to
see if peradventure there was a Constitutionalist Richelieu
lurking in the entrails of the Faubourg; and if that genius was
not forthcoming from among them, they should have set out to find
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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 Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: soldiers slept with the horses, heads bowed, eyes closed.
"Our horses are pretty tired, Anastasio. I think we
ought to stay here at least another day."
"Well, Compadre Demetrio, I'm hankering for the
sierra. . . . If you only knew. . . . You may not believe
me but nothing strikes me right here. I don't know what
I miss but I know I miss something. I feel sad . . .
lost. . . ."
"How many hours' ride from here to Limon?"
"It's no matter of hours; it's three days' hard riding,
Demetrio."
The Underdogs |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Koran: fetters on the necks of those who misbelieved. Shall they be
rewarded except for that which they have done?
We have not sent to any city a warner but the opulent thereof
said, 'We, in what ye are sent with, disbelieve.'
And they say, 'We have more wealth and children, and we shall not be
tormented.'
Say, 'Verily, my Lord extends provision to whom He pleases or
doles it out, but most men do not know; but neither your wealth nor
your children is that which will bring you to a near approach to us,
save him who believes and does right; these, for them is a double
reward for what they have done, and they in upper rooms shall be
The Koran |
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 Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: old Rigou has gone into the Cafe de la Paix with Socquard."
"Oh!" returned the abbe, "wherever he goes and wherever he stays, you
may be quite certain it is for no charitable purpose."
"That man gives me goose-flesh whenever I see him," said Madame
Vermut.
"He is so much to be feared," remarked the doctor, "that if he had a
spite against me I should have no peace till he was dead and buried;
he would get out of his coffin to do you an ill-turn."
"If any one can force the Shopman to come to the fair, and manage to
catch him in a trap, it'll be Rigou," said Soudry to his wife, in a
low tone.
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