| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: met.
I could not see her features; they were lost in the shadow of the
hood. But I saw a shiver run through her from head to foot. And
I knew then that I had made no mistake.
'That is too heavy for you, my girl,' I said familiarly, as I
might have spoken to a village wench. 'I will carry it for you.'
One of the men, who remained lolling at the table, laughed, and
the other began to sing a low song. The woman trembled in rage
or fear; but she kept silence and let me take the jug from her
hands; and when I went to the door and opened it, she followed
mechanically. An instant, and the door fell to behind us,
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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 Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: often, "Well, what is it, after all?" not to have plunged to her waist
in the deep disgust which all men of genius feel when they try to
complete by intense toil the work to which they have devoted
themselves. Her youth and her rich nature alone kept Modeste at this
period of her life from seeking to enter a cloister. But this sense of
satiety cast her, saturated as she still was with Catholic
spirituality, into the love of Good, the infinite of heaven. She
conceived of charity, service to others, as the true occupation of
life; but she cowered in the gloomy dreariness of finding in it no
food for the fancy that lay crouching in her heart like an insect at
the bottom of a calyx. Meanwhile she sat tranquilly sewing garments
Modeste Mignon |
