| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: other souls will get harm out of them.
Frightfully interesting, isn't it? -- the Cosmos, I mean.
I have given so much thought to it! It has be-
come almost an obsession to me.
Only the other evening I was thinking about it.
And without realizing that I spoke aloud I said,
"I simply could NOT DO WITHOUT the Cosmos!"
Mamma -- poor Mamma! -- she is so terribly
unadvanced you know! -- Mama said: "Hermi-
one, I do not know what the Cosmos is. But this I
do know -- not another Sex Discussion or East
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: what was the use of killing more men unless I was obliged? There were
plenty ready to do that.
Another minute, and the regiment in front of us began to move, while the
other two behind it ostentatiously sat themselves down in their ranks,
to show that they did not mean to spoil sport. The fight was to begin
with a duel between about six thousand men.
"Good!" muttered the warrior who was nearest me. "They are in our bag."
"Aye," answered another, "those little boys" (used as a term of
contempt) "are going to learn their last lesson."
For a few seconds there was silence, while the long ranks leant forward
between the hedges of lean and cruel spears. A whisper went down the
Child of Storm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: Popinot withdrew. He looked back several times as he crossed the
courtyard, touched by the recollection of the scene. It was one of
those which take root in the memory to blossom again in certain hours
when the soul seeks consolation.
"Those rooms would just suit me," said he to himself as he reached
home. "If M. d'Espard leaves them, I will take up his lease."
The next day, at about ten in the morning, Popinot, who had written
out his report the previous evening, made his way to the Palais de
Justice, intending to have prompt and righteous justice done. As he
went to the robing-room to put on his gown and bands, the usher told
him that the President of his Court begged him to attend in his
|
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 The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: full of misery. The vicar was not a man to get up without a fire. He
rang to let Marianne know that he was awake and that she must come to
him; then he remained, as his habit was, absorbed in somnolent
musings. The servant's custom was to make the fire and gently draw him
from his half sleep by the murmured sound of her movements,--a sort of
music which he loved. Twenty minutes passed and Marianne had not
appeared. The vicar, now half a canon, was about to ring again, when
he let go the bell-pull, hearing a man's step on the staircase. In a
minute more the Abbe Troubert, after discreetly knocking at the door,
obeyed Birotteau's invitation and entered the room. This visit, which
the two abbe's usually paid each other once a month, was no surprise
|
