| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: somewhere. What do you think we ought to do?"
"He will not smell at his bread like this any more," said the
painter, mimicking the old man's little trick.
"Oh, hang it all!" cried the tutor, "let Father Goriot drop, and
let us have something else for a change. He is a standing dish,
and we have had him with every sauce this hour or more. It is one
of the privileges of the good city of Paris that anybody may be
born, or live, or die there without attracting any attention
whatsoever. Let us profit by the advantages of civilization.
There are fifty or sixty deaths every day; if you have a mind to
do it, you can sit down at any time and wail over whole hecatombs
Father Goriot |
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 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: was pleased to hear it from him. Again he honored him by touching
his ear.
"I am very sorry to have made you travel so far," said he.
"Sire, I expected nothing less than to find you at the gates of
Moscow," replied de Beausset.
Napoleon smiled and, lifting his head absentmindedly, glanced to the
right. An aide-de-camp approached with gliding steps and offered him a
gold snuffbox, which he took.
"Yes, it has happened luckily for you," he said, raising the open
snuffbox to his nose. "You are fond of travel, and in three days you
will see Moscow. You surely did not expect to see that Asiatic
War and Peace |
