| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes
Chaboisseau
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Government Clerks
Chocardelle, Mademoiselle
Beatrix
A Prince of Bohemia
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
Claparon, Charles
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: When the major was warm, and his hunger appeased, an invincible desire
to sleep weighed down his eyelids. During the short moment of his
struggle against that desire he looked at the young woman, who had
turned her face to the fire and was now asleep, leaving her closed
eyes and a portion of her forehead exposed to sight. She was wrapped
in a furred pelisse and a heavy dragoon's cloak; her head rested on a
pillow stained with blood; an astrakhan hood, kept in place by a
handkerchief knotted round her neck, preserved her face from the cold
as much as possible. Her feet were wrapped in the cloak. Thus rolled
into a bundle, as it were, she looked like nothing at all. Was she the
last of the "vivandieres"? Was she a charming woman, the glory of a
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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 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: into Hester's breast, as if it had been red hot. He noticed her
involuntary gesture, and smiled "Live, therefore, and bear about
thy doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women -- in the eyes
of him whom thou didst call thy husband -- in the eyes of yonder
child! And, that thou mayest live, take off this draught. "
Without further expostulation or delay, Hester Prynne drained
the cup, and, at the motion of the man of skill, seated herself
on the bed, where the child was sleeping; while he drew the only
chair which the room afforded, and took his own seat beside her.
She could not but tremble at these preparations; for she felt
The Scarlet Letter |
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 Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: much value as a callico under-petticoat; since, like its
mistress, it will be useless in the form it is now in. If the
ladies have no regard to the dishonour and immorality of the
action, I desire they will consider, that nature who never
destroys her own productions, will exempt big-belly'd women till
the time of their lying-in; so that not to be transformed, will
be the same as to be pregnant. If they don't think it worth while
to defend a fortress that is to be demolish'd in a few days, let
them reflect that it will be a melancholy thing nine months
hence, to be brought to bed of a bastard; a posthumous bastard as
it were, to which the quondam father can be no more than a dry
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