| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: "No," I said, "it is not she."
I was stupefied with grief. I left the grounds by the little gate of
the lower terrace and went to the punt, in which I hid to be alone
with my thoughts. I tried to detach myself from the being in which I
lived,--a torture like that with which the Tartars punish adultery by
fastening a limb of the guilty man in a piece of wood and leaving him
with a knife to cut it off if he would not die of hunger. My life was
a failure, too! Despair suggested many strange ideas to me. Sometimes
I vowed to die beside her; sometimes to bury myself at Meilleraye
among the Trappists. I looked at the windows of the room where
Henriette was dying, fancying I saw the light that was burning there
The Lily of the Valley |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: for the day. The official in charge, who had been engaged in
earnest conversation with a small, frail-looking, middle-aged man,
turned to Amster with a question as to what brought him there.
"I found this package in the snow."
"Let me see it."
Amster laid it on the table. The older man looked at it, and as
the commissioner was about to open it, he handed him a paper-knife
with the words: "You had better cut it open, sir."
"Why?"
"It is best not to injure the seals that fasten a package."
"Just as you say, Muller," answered the young commissioner, smiling.
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