| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: "What," cried Gambara, "are twenty-five years of study in vain? Am I
to learn the imperfect language of men when I have the key to the
heavenly tongue? Oh, if you are right,--I should die."
"No, no. You are great and strong; you would begin life again, and I
would support you. We would show the world the noble and rare alliance
of a rich man and an artist in perfect sympathy and understanding."
"Do you mean it?" asked Gambara, struck with amazement.
"As I have told you, you are a poet more than a musician."
"A poet, a poet! It is better than nothing. But tell me truly, which
do you esteem most highly, Mozart or Homer?"
"I admire them equally."
Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: He lived to exert, and frequently to enjoy himself.
His wife was not always out of humour, nor his home
always uncomfortable; and in his breed of horses and dogs,
and in sporting of every kind, he found no inconsiderable
degree of domestic felicity.
For Marianne, however--in spite of his incivility
in surviving her loss--he always retained that decided
regard which interested him in every thing that befell her,
and made her his secret standard of perfection in woman;--
and many a rising beauty would be slighted by him in
after-days as bearing no comparison with Mrs. Brandon.
Sense and Sensibility |
