| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: breath in shouting in stentorian tones,--
"Look out there, carrion!"
"Poor wretches!" cried the major.
"Pooh! that or the cold, that or the cannon," said the grenadier,
prodding the horses, and urging them on.
A catastrophe, which might well have happened to them much sooner, put
a stop to their advance. The carriage was overturned.
"I expected it," cried the imperturbable grenadier. "Ho! ho! your man
is dead."
"Poor Laurent!" said the major.
"Laurent? Was he in the 5th chasseurs?"
|
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 Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: beautiful as an angel."
I returned to the dying woman just as the setting sun was gilding the
lace-work on the roofs of the chateau of Azay. All was calm and pure.
A soft light lit the bed on which my Henriette was lying, wrapped in
opium. The body was, as it were, annihilated; the soul alone reigned
on that face, serene as the skies when the tempest is over. Blanche
and Henriette, two sublime faces of the same woman, reappeared; all
the more beautiful because my recollection, my thought, my
imagination, aiding nature, repaired the devastation of each dear
feature, where now the soul triumphant sent its gleams through the
calm pulsations of her breathing. The two abbes were sitting at the
The Lily of the Valley |
