| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: felt at the prospect of a discussion with Mademoiselle Gamard
increased day by day; the secret distress which blighted his life
began to injure his health. One morning, as he put on his mottled blue
stockings, he noticed a marked dimunition in the circumference of his
calves. Horrified by so cruel and undeniable a symptom, he resolved to
make an effort and appeal to the Abbe Troubert, requesting him to
intervene, officially, between Mademoiselle Gamard and himself.
When he found himself in presence of the imposing canon, who, in order
to receive his visitor in a bare and cheerless room, had hastily
quitted a study full of papers, where he worked incessantly, and where
no one was ever admitted, the vicar felt half ashamed at speaking of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: displeasure, from which he hath been honestly cleared by the
frank avowal of this malapert boy. What think ye? were it not
an act of charity to give him such consolation as the thanks of a
Queen, much bound to him for his loyal service, may perchance
best minister?"
It may be readily supposed that none to whom this speech was
addressed ventured to oppose its purport.
"Your Grace," said the Bishop of Lincoln, "is the breath of our
nostrils." The men of war averred that the face of the Sovereign
was a whetstone to the soldier's sword; while the men of state
were not less of opinion that the light of the Queen's
Kenilworth |
