| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: "But your daughter earns enough to pay for her own clothes," said Newman.
M. Nioche looked at him with weak, uncertain eyes.
He would have liked to be able to say that his daughter's talents
were appreciated, and that her crooked little daubs commanded
a market; but it seemed a scandal to abuse the credulity
of this free-handed stranger, who, without a suspicion
or a question, had admitted him to equal social rights.
He compromised, and declared that while it was obvious
that Mademoiselle Noemie's reproductions of the old masters
had only to be seen to be coveted, the prices which,
in consideration of their altogether peculiar degree of finish,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: Full often will I praise thee unto him.'
Then paused she, and thereafter I began:
'O Lady of virtue, thou alone through whom
The human race exceedeth all contained
Within the heaven that has the lesser circles,
So grateful unto me is thy commandment,
To obey, if 'twere already done, were late;
No farther need'st thou ope to me thy wish.
But the cause tell me why thou dost not shun
The here descending down into this centre,
From the vast place thou burnest to return to.'
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
