| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: mother who ever lacked heart and wit and yearning to such a degree as
to fall below the inspirations suggested by her animal instinct? A
mother is as cunning to get at her children as a girl can be in the
conduct of a love intrigue. If your Marquise really wanted to give her
children food and clothes, the Devil himself would not have hindered
her, heh? That is rather too big a fable for an old lawyer to swallow!
--To proceed.
" 'That at the age the said children have now attained it is necessary
that steps should be taken to preserve them from the evil effects of
such an education; that they should be provided for as beseems their
rank, and that they should cease to have before their eyes the sad
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: due to her on a sum of 30,000 livres, part of the purchase-money
of the estate of Buisson-Souef, which she had recently sold. As
Mme. de Lamotte represented herself as having been sent to M.
Pourra by a respectable merchant for whom he was in the habit of
doing business, he agreed to draw up the necessary document,
accepting her statement that she and her husband had separate
estates. Mme. de Lamotte said that she would not have time to
wait until the power of attorney was ready, and therefore asked
M. Pourra to send it to the parish priest at Villeneuvele-Roi;
this he promised to do. Mme. de-Lamotte had called twice during
the day at the Hotel Blanc and asked for M. Desportes of Paris,
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: Mackworth had said, been wounded twice, and each time with the
point of the sword, so much more dangerous than a direct cut with
the weapon. One wound was beneath his armor, and no one but he
knew how serious it might be; the other was under the overlapping
of the epauhere, and from it a finger's-breadth of blood ran
straight down his side and over the housings of his horse. From
without, the still motionless iron figure appeared calm and
expressionless; within, who knows what consuming blasts of hate,
rage, and despair swept his heart as with a fiery whirlwind.
As Myles looked at the motionless, bleeding figure, his breast
swelled with pity. "My Lord," said he, "thou art sore wounded and
Men of Iron |
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 Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: Marneffe is promoted, and gets his Cross of the Legion of Honor----"
"How much more will your husband get then?"
"A thousand crowns."
"I will pay him as much in an annuity," said Baron Montes. "We will
leave Paris and go----"
"Where?" said Valerie, with one of the pretty sneers by which a woman
makes fun of a man she is sure of. "Paris is the only place where we
can live happy. I care too much for your love to risk seeing it die
out in a /tete-a-tete/ in the wilderness. Listen, Henri, you are the
only man I care for in the whole world. Write that down clearly in
your tiger's brain."
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