| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: sign of relenting.
" ' "What nonsense! You are talking to some one," said the voice, and
in came a man who could only be the Count.
" 'The Countess gave me a glance. I saw how it was. She was thoroughly
in my power. There was a time, when I was young, and might perhaps
have been stupid enough not to protest the bill. At Pondicherry, in
1763, I let a woman off, and nicely she paid me out afterwards. I
deserved it; what call was there for me to trust her?
" ' "What does this gentleman want?" asked the Count.
" 'I could see that the Countess was trembling from head to foot; the
white satin skin of her throat was rough, "turned to goose flesh," to
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: slender evidences as you have done hitherto.
It is from you, eloquent oyster-merchants of Billingsgate, (just
ready to be called to the Bar, and quoif'd like your
sister-serjants,) that we expect the shortening the time, and
lessening the expences of law-suits: For I think you are observ'd
to bring your debates to a short issue; and even custom will
restrain you from taking the oyster, and leaving only the shell
to your client.
O ye physicians, (who in the figure of old women are to clean the
tripe in the markets) scour it as effectually as you have done
that of your patients, and the town will fare most deliciously on
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: the paved court, which was scarcely lighted by the carriage lamps.
Suddenly the young lawyer felt a friendly hand on his shoulder, and
turning round, found himself face to face with the Judge, to whom he
bowed. As the footman let down the steps of his carriage, the old
gentleman, who had served the Convention, suspected the junior's
dilemma.
"All cats are gray in the dark," said he good-humoredly. "The Chief
Justice cannot compromise himself by putting a pleader in the right
way! Especially," he went on, "when the pleader is the nephew of an
old colleague, one of the lights of the grand Council of State which
gave France the Napoleonic Code."
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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 A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: poke out upon the landing.'
'He's dead and gone now, nevertheless, poor man, as we all shall,'
observed Worm, to fill the pause which followed the conclusion of
Robert Lickpan's speech.
The weighing and cutting up was pursued amid an animated discourse
on Stephen's travels; and at the finish, the first-fruits of the
day's slaughter, fried in onions, were then turned from the pan
into a dish on the table, each piece steaming and hissing till it
reached their very mouths.
It must be owned that the gentlemanly son of the house looked
rather out of place in the course of this operation. Nor was his
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
