| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: "Twenty days."
"What sum do you mean to put in the workmen's pockets?" asked Grindot.
"How much do you think it will cost?"
"An architect can estimate on a new building almost to a farthing,"
answered the young man; "but as I don't know how to deal with a
bourgeois--ah! excuse me, monsieur, the word slipped out--I must warn
you that it is impossible to calculate the costs of tearing down and
rebuilding. It will take at least eight days before I can give even an
approximate idea of them. Trust yourself to me: you shall have a
charming staircase, lighted from above, with a pretty vestibule
opening from the street, and in the space under the stairway--"
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: So seven years passed in the Monastery and thirteen in his
hermit's cell. He now had the appearance of an old man: his
beard was long and grey, but his hair, though thin, was still
black and curly.
V
For some weeks Father Sergius had been living with one persistent
thought: whether he was right in accepting the position in which
he had not so much placed himself as been placed by the
Archimandrite and the Abbot. That position had begun after the
recovery of the fourteen-year-old boy. From that time, with each
month, week, and day that passed, Sergius felt his own inner life
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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 Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: --pure republicans, presiding republicans, republicans without a
republic, constitutionals without a dynasty, ministerial
conservatives, ministerial absolutists; also the Right, the
aristocratic Right, the legitimist, henriquinquist Right, and the
carlest Right. Between the party of resistance and that of action
there was no discussion; they might as well have hesitated between
life and death.
At this period a flock of newspapers, created to represent all shades
of opinion, produced a fearful pell-mell of political principles.
Blondet, the most judicious mind of the day,--judicious for others,
never for himself, like some great lawyers unable to manage their own
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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 Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: bursting with the tide of blood that rushed to it. He fancied that he
could hear an angelic chorus of voices, and he would have given his
life to feel the fire of passion which at this hour last night had
filled him for the odious Clarina; but he was at the moment hardly
conscious of having a body.
Massimilla, much distressed, ascribed this tear, in her guilelessness,
to the remark she had made as to Genovese's cavatina.
"But, /carino/," said she in Emilio's ear, "are not you as far better
than every expression of love, as cause is superior to effect?"
After handing the Duchess to her gondola, Emilio waited for Vendramin
to go to Florian's.
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