| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: stove; then, to use a studio expression, he dug at his pictures. He
hired several models and Magus lent him stuffs.
After two months' seclusion the Breton had finished four pictures.
Again he asked counsel of Schinner, this time adding Bridau to the
invitation. The two painters saw in three of these pictures a servile
imitation of Dutch landscapes and interiors by Metzu, in the fourth a
copy of Rembrandt's "Lesson of Anatomy."
"Still imitating!" said Schinner. "Ah! Fougeres can't manage to be
original."
"You ought to do something else than painting," said Bridau.
"What?" asked Fougeres.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: speak of her to any but these two, or to linger long where she
had been doubly lost to him, by marriage and by death. The
world, with all its prying curiosity, usually misses the key to
the very incidents about which it asks most questions; and of
the many who gossiped or mourned concerning Emilia, none knew
the tragic complication which her death alone could have
solved. The breaking of Hope's engagement to Philip was
attributed to every cause but the true one. And when the storm
of the great Rebellion broke over the land, its vast calamity
absorbed all minor griefs.
XXIII.
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