| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: get off, they has good times with me; and if they don't, why, it's
thar fault, and not mine."
Tom assured Haley that he had no present intentions of
running off. In fact, the exhortation seemed rather a superfluous
one to a man with a great pair of iron fetters on his feet.
But Mr. Haley had got in the habit of commencing his relations with
his stock with little exhortations of this nature, calculated, as
he deemed, to inspire cheerfulness and confidence, and prevent the
necessity of any unpleasant scenes.
And here, for the present, we take our leave of Tom, to
pursue the fortunes of other characters in our story.
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
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 Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: advantages of a fortune acquired in a profession; so she accompanied
her sister to the sumptuous villa, less out of affection for the
members of her family who were visiting there, than because fashion
has ordained that every woman who has any self-respect must leave
Paris in the summer. The green seclusion of Sceaux answered to
perfection the requirements of good style and of the duties of an
official position.
As it is extremely doubtful that the fame of the "Bal de Sceaux"
should ever have extended beyond the borders of the Department of the
Seine, it will be necessary to give some account of this weekly
festivity, which at that time was important enough to threaten to
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