| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: (no longer "hatter" as formerly), whose advertisements brought in more
money to the newspapers than those of any half-dozen vendors of pills
or sugarplums,--the author, moreover, of an essay on hats.
"My dear fellow," said Bixiou to Gazonal, pointing to the splendors of
the show-window, "Vital has forty thousand francs a year from invested
property."
"And he stays a hatter!" cried the Southerner, with a bound that
almost broke the arm which Bixiou had linked in his.
"You shall see the man," said Leon. "You need a hat and you shall have
one gratis."
"Is Monsieur Vital absent?" asked Bixiou, seeing no one behind the
|
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 Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: warning, cease and determine in some miry hollow or upon some bald
knowe; and you have a short period of hope, then right-about face,
and back the way you came! So we draw about the kitchen fire and
play a round game of cards for ha'pence, or go to the billiard-room,
for a match at corks and by one consent a messenger is sent over for
the wagonette - Grez shall be left to-morrow.
To-morrow dawns so fair that two of the party agree to walk back for
exercise, and let their kidnap-sacks follow by the trap. I need
hardly say they are neither of them French; for, of all English
phrases, the phrase 'for exercise' is the least comprehensible across
the Straits of Dover. All goes well for a while with the
|
