| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: the backbone, and would never allow his name to remain under the
slightest cloud! Money without honor is a disease. There is honor in
the provinces! Right, very right, Grandet. I'm an old soldier, and I
can't disguise my thoughts; I speak roughly. Thunder! it is sublime!"
"Th-then s-s-sublime th-things c-c-cost d-dear," answered the goodman,
as the banker warmly wrung his hand.
"But this, my dear Grandet,--if the president will excuse me,--is a
purely commercial matter, and needs a consummate business man. Your
agent must be some one fully acquainted with the markets,--with
disbursements, rebates, interest calculations, and so forth. I am
going to Paris on business of my own, and I can take charge of--"
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: the doctor told his wife (who had ceased to smile so happily, and
looked at him in alarm, awaiting her sentence) that the rain had
ceased and they must go to sleep in their covered cart, or
everything in it would be stolen.
"But I'll send an orderly.... Two of them!" said Rostov. "What an
idea, doctor!"
"I'll stand guard on it myself!" said Ilyin.
"No, gentlemen, you have had your sleep, but I have not slept for
two nights," replied the doctor, and he sat down morosely beside his
wife, waiting for the game to end.
Seeing his gloomy face as he frowned at his wife, the officers
War and Peace |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: with thy neighbour's devil! Otherwise it will haunt thee in the night.
Honour to the government, and obedience, and also to the crooked
government! So desireth good sleep. How can I help it, if power like to
walk on crooked legs?
He who leadeth his sheep to the greenest pasture, shall always be for me
the best shepherd: so doth it accord with good sleep.
Many honours I want not, nor great treasures: they excite the spleen. But
it is bad sleeping without a good name and a little treasure.
A small company is more welcome to me than a bad one: but they must come
and go at the right time. So doth it accord with good sleep.
Well, also, do the poor in spirit please me: they promote sleep. Blessed
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: Colonel Chabert
Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des
The Muse of the Department
Eugenie Grandet
A Bachelor's Establishment
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Ursule Mirouet
Metivier
Lost Illusions
The Middle Classes
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