| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: external rules of dignity, with that special Parisianism that is
revealed in buttoned boots, a gaudy cravat, and that something
which foreigners pick up in Paris, and which, in its peculiarity
and novelty, always has an influence on our women. In his
manners an external and artificial gayety, a way, you know, of
referring to everything by hints, by unfinished fragments, as if
everything that one says you knew already, recalled it, and could
supply the omissions. Well, he, with his music, was the cause of
all.
"At the trial the affair was so represented that everything
seemed attributable to jealousy. It is false,--that is, not
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: SALOME. Comme il est maigre aussi! il ressemble e une mince image
d'ivoire. On dirait une image d'argent. Je suis sure qu'il est
chaste, autant que la lune. Il ressemble e un rayon d'argent. Sa
chair doit etre tres froide, comme de l'ivoire . . . Je veux le
regarder de pres.
LE JEUNE SYRIEN. Non, non, princesse!
SALOME. Il faut que je le regarde de pres.
LE JEUNE SYRIEN. Princesse! Princesse!
IOKANAAN. Qui est cette femme qui me regarde? Je ne veux pas
qu'elle me regarde. Pourquoi me regarde-t-elle avec ses yeux d'or
sous ses paupieres dorees? Je ne sais pas qui c'est. Je ne veux
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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 Death of the Lion by Henry James: at home, but she wrote to me and I went again; she wanted so much
to hear more about Neil Paraday. I returned repeatedly, I may
briefly declare, to supply her with this information. She had been
immensely taken, the more she thought of it, with that idea of mine
about the act of homage: it had ended by filling her with a
generous rapture. She positively desired to do something sublime
for him, though indeed I could see that, as this particular flight
was difficult, she appreciated the fact that my visits kept her up.
I had it on my conscience to keep her up: I neglected nothing that
would contribute to it, and her conception of our cherished
author's independence became at last as fine as his very own.
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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 Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: her beauty is enhanced by the looks she gathers in,--a mute homage
which she transfers with subtle glances to the man she loves. At
moments like these a woman is invested with supernatural power and
becomes a magician, a charmer, without herself knowing that she is
one; involuntarily she inspires the love that fills her own bosom; her
smiles and glances fascinate. If this condition, which comes from the
soul, can give attraction even to a plain woman, with what radiance
does it not invest a woman of natural elegance, distinguished bearing,
fair, fresh, with sparkling eyes, and dressed in a taste that wrings
approval from artists and her bitterest rivals.
Have you ever, for your happiness, met a woman whose harmonious voice
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