| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: restoration a mere captain, was appointed to the command of a legion
on the return from Ghent; then, thanks to the confusion of 1815, when
the regulations were evaded, he passed into the bodyguard, returned to
a line regiment, and found himself after the affair of the Trocadero a
lieutenant-general with a commission in the Guards. The youngest,
appointed sous-prefet, ere long became a legal official and director
of a municipal board of the city of Paris, where he was safe from
changes in Legislature. These bounties, bestowed without parade, and
as secret as the favor enjoyed by the Count, fell unperceived. Though
the father and his three sons each had sinecures enough to enjoy an
income in salaries almost equal to that of a chief of department,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: but I insisted on their taking it. A man being sometimes more
generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty,
perhaps thro' fear of being thought to have but little.
Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the market-house
I met a boy with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and,
inquiring where he got it, I went immediately to the baker's
he directed me to, in Secondstreet, and ask'd for bisket,
intending such as we had in Boston; but they, it seems, were not
made in Philadelphia. Then I asked for a three-penny loaf,
and was told they had none such. So not considering or knowing
the difference of money, and the greater cheapness nor the names
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: believed.
He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and
simple credulity. His appetite for the marvelous, and his powers
of digesting it, were equally extraordinary; and both had been
increased by his residence in this spell-bound region. No tale
was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow. It was
often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the
afternoon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover bordering
the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, and there
con over old Mather's direful tales, until the gathering dusk of
evening made the printed page a mere mist before his eyes. Then,
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
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 Camille by Alexandre Dumas: hurts me dreadfully."
"Come, let us reason it out," she said, taking both my hands and
looking at me with a charming smile which it was impossible to
resist, "You love me, do you not? and you would gladly spend two
or three months alone with me in the country? I too should be
glad of this solitude a deux, and not only glad of it, but my
health requires it. I can not leave Paris for such a length of
time without putting my affairs in order, and the affairs of a
woman like me are always in great confusion; well, I have found a
way to reconcile everything, my money affairs and my love for
you; yes, for you, don't laugh; I am silly enough to love you!
Camille |
