| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: when we both know the meaning of words. For an ecclesiastic, you
certainly have ideas that are very incongruous. Fie! it is worthy of
Faublas!"
"You have read Faublas?"
"No, monsieur l'abbe; I meant to say the /Liaisons dangereuses/."
"Ah! that book is infinitely more moral," said the abbe, laughing.
"But you make me out as wicked as a young man of the present day; I
only meant--"
"Do you dare to tell me you were not thinking of putting wicked things
into my head? Isn't it perfectly clear? If this young man--who I admit
is very good-looking--were to make love to me, he would not think of
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: them! Knowing that thou couldst ask and have, thou hast demanded--
blood! A little flour surely should have contented thee, accustomed as
thou hast been to live on bread and to mingle water with thy wine.
Unlike all others in all things, formerly thou wouldst bid thy lovers
fast, and they obeyed. Why should thy fancies have led thee to require
things impossible? Why, like a courtesan spoiled by her lovers, hast
thou doted on follies, and left those undeceived who sought to explain
and justify all thy errors? Then came the days of thy later passions,
terrible like the love of a woman of forty years, with a fierce cry
thou hast sought to clasp the whole universe in one last embrace--and
thy universe recoiled from thee!
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