| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: cobwebs for the Gobenheims, the Vilquins, and the Althors.
Some time during the spring which followed the removal of Madame
Mignon and her daughter to the Chalet, Francisque Althor came to dine
with the Vilquins. Happening to see Modeste over the wall at the foot
of the lawn, he turned away his head. Six weeks later he married the
eldest Mademoiselle Vilquin. In this way Modeste, young, beautiful,
and of high birth, learned the lesson that for three whole months of
her engagement she had been nothing more than Mademoiselle Million.
Her poverty, well known to all, became a sentinel defending the
approaches to the Chalet fully as well as the prudence of the
Latournelles or the vigilance of Dumay. The talk of the town ran for a
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: was not a pleasant thing to look forward to." Haley was very
good-natured about it, though Wolfe had fought him savagely.
"When he was first caught," the jailer said afterwards, in
telling the story, "before the trial, the fellow was cut down at
once,--laid there on that pallet like a dead man, with his hands
over his eyes. Never saw a man so cut down in my life. Time of
the trial, too, came the queerest dodge of any customer I ever
had. Would choose no lawyer. Judge gave him one, of course.
Gibson it Was. He tried to prove the fellow crazy; but it
wouldn't go. Thing was plain as daylight: money found on him.
'T was a hard sentence,--all the law allows; but it was for
Life in the Iron-Mills |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: one ray of light," Anne shivered in luxurious sympathy; when the
choir sang "Far Above the Gentle Daisies" Anne gazed at the
ceiling as if it were frescoed with angels; when Sam Sloane
proceeded to explain and illustrate "How Sockery Set a Hen" Anne
laughed until people sitting near her laughed too, more out of
sympathy with her than with amusement at a selection that was
rather threadbare even in Avonlea; and when Mr. Phillips gave
Mark Antony's oration over the dead body of Caesar in the most
heartstirring tones--looking at Prissy Andrews at the end of
every sentence--Anne felt that she could rise and mutiny on the
spot if but one Roman citizen led the way.
Anne of Green Gables |
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 The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: exalted sentiments, of superstitious scruples, of a refinement of
loyalty. Certainly it added at the same time hugely to the price
of Vereker's secret, precious as this mystery already appeared. I
may as well confess abjectly that Mrs. Corvick's unexpected
attitude was the final tap on the nail that was to fix fast my
luckless idea, convert it into the obsession of which I'm for ever
conscious.
But this only helped me the more to be artful, to be adroit, to
allow time to elapse before renewing my suit. There were plenty of
speculations for the interval, and one of them was deeply
absorbing. Corvick had kept his information from his young friend
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