| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: was only a ruse to have it whispered in his ear: "Stay after the
others; we want to talk to you."
The baron's sudden return, his apparent satisfaction, which was quite
out of keeping with a harrassed look that occasionally crossed his
face, informed Monsieur de Bourbonne vaguely that the lieutenant had
met with some check in his crusade against Gamard and Troubert. He
showed no surprise when the baron revealed the secret power of the
Jesuit vicar-general.
"I knew that," he said.
"Then why," cried the baroness, "did you not warn us?"
"Madame," he said, sharply, "forget that I was aware of the invisible
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: longing for this quietude, and had even begged Mrs. Winthrop and
Aaron, who had naturally lingered behind every one else, to leave
him alone with his child. The excitement had not passed away: it
had only reached that stage when the keenness of the susceptibility
makes external stimulus intolerable--when there is no sense of
weariness, but rather an intensity of inward life, under which sleep
is an impossibility. Any one who has watched such moments in other
men remembers the brightness of the eyes and the strange
definiteness that comes over coarse features from that transient
influence. It is as if a new fineness of ear for all spiritual
voices had sent wonder-working vibrations through the heavy mortal
Silas Marner |
