| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: town to Madame Evangelista.
"We had so many documents to read and sign that I fear we are rather
late," she replied; "but perhaps we are excusable."
"As for me, I heard nothing," said Natalie, giving her hand to her
lover to open the ball.
"Both of those young persons are extravagant, and the mother is not of
a kind to check them," said a dowager.
"But they have founded an entail, I am told, worth fifty thousand
francs a year."
"Pooh!"
"In that I see the hand of our worthy Monsieur Mathias," said a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: I would take a long wager he is honest.'
'O, for honest, your Highness, that he is!' exclaimed the girl.
'And Fritz is as honest as he. And as for all they said, it was
just talk and nonsense. When countryfolk get gossiping, they go on,
I do assure you, for the fun; they don't as much as think of what
they say. If you went to the next farm, it's my belief you would
hear as much against my father.'
'Nay, nay,' said Otto, 'there you go too fast. For all that was
said against Prince Otto - '
'O, it was shameful!' cried the girl.
'Not shameful - true,' returned Otto. 'O, yes - true. I am all
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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 Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: betook himself to the well-known usurer. Having borrowed a
considerable sum from him, the man in a short time changed completely.
He became a persecutor and oppressor of budding talent and intellect.
He saw the bad side in everything produced, and every word he uttered
was false.
"Then, unfortunately, came the French Revolution. This furnished him
with an excuse for every kind of suspicion. He began to discover a
revolutionary tendency in everything; to concoct terrible and unjust
accusations, which made scores of people unhappy. Of course, such
conduct could not fail in time to reach the throne. The kind-hearted
Empress was shocked; and, full of the noble spirit which adorns
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
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 Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells: I have been doing better. But somehow the things drift back again:
the stubborn beast-flesh grows day by day back again.
But I mean to do better things still. I mean to conquer that.
This puma--
"But that's the story. All the Kanaka boys are dead now;
one fell overboard of the launch, and one died of a wounded
heel that he poisoned in some way with plant-juice. Three
went away in the yacht, and I suppose and hope were drowned.
The other one--was killed. Well, I have replaced them.
Montgomery went on much as you are disposed to do at first,
and then--
The Island of Doctor Moreau |
