| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: Luyden paused again, and continued with increasing
benevolence: "Before taking him down to Maryland
we are inviting a few friends to meet him here--only a
little dinner--with a reception afterward. I am sure
Louisa will be as glad as I am if Countess Olenska will
let us include her among our guests." He got up, bent
his long body with a stiff friendliness toward his cousin,
and added: "I think I have Louisa's authority for saying
that she will herself leave the invitation to dine
when she drives out presently: with our cards--of course
with our cards."
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: people elected a Board composed wholly of women. In a few years
the scandal was at an end; there were no female teachers in the
Department.
The Poet's Doom
AN Object was walking along the King's highway wrapped in
meditation and with little else on, when he suddenly found himself
at the gates of a strange city. On applying for admittance, he was
arrested as a necessitator of ordinances, and taken before the
King.
"Who are you," said the King, "and what is your business in life?"
"Snouter the Sneak," replied the Object, with ready invention;
Fantastic Fables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: almost vegetative attitude, like an anchorite of the early Church, and
abdicating the empire of the intellectual world.
This letter seems to hint at such a scheme, which is a temptation to
all lofty souls at periods of social reform. But is not this purpose,
in some cases, the result of a vocation? Do not some of them endeavor
to concentrate their powers by long silence, so as to emerge fully
capable of governing the world by word or by deed? Louis must,
assuredly, have found much bitterness in his intercourse with men, or
have striven hard with Society in terrible irony, without extracting
anything from it, before uttering so strident a cry, and expressing,
poor fellow, the desire which satiety of power and of all earthly
Louis Lambert |
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: Marguerite seemed to be thinking, for she answered nothing. My
heart beat violently while I waited for her reply.
"No," she answered, "I will not leave Armand, and I will not
conceal the fact that I am living with him. It is folly no doubt,
but I love him. What would you have me do? And then, now that he
has got accustomed to be always with me, he would suffer too
cruelly if he had to leave me so much as an hour a day. Besides,
I have not such a long time to live that I need make myself
miserable in order to please an old man whose very sight makes me
feel old. Let him keep his money; I will do without it."
"But what will you do?"
Camille |
