| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: cohorts;--as to the elephants, they were being hunted in the woods, he
was arming the foot-soldiers, the horses were on their way; and the
Numidian rolled his eyes like a woman and smiled in an irritating
manner as he stroked the ostrich feather which fell upon his shoulder.
In his presence Matho was at a loss for a reply.
But a man who was a stranger entered, wet with perspiration, scared,
and with bleeding feet and loosened girdle; his breathing shook his
lean sides enough to have burst them, and speaking in an
unintelligible dialect he opened his eyes wide as if he were telling
of some battle. The king sprang outside and called his horsemen.
They ranged themselves in the plain before him in the form of a
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: swiftly down Marais Street, casting a quick glance here and there
from under her heavy veil as if she feared she was being
followed. If you had peered under the veil, you would have seen
that Manuela's dark eyes were swollen and discoloured about the
lids, as though they had known a sleepless, tearful night.
There had been a picnic the day before, and as merry a crowd of
giddy, chattering Creole girls and boys as ever you could see
boarded the ramshackle dummy-train that puffed its way wheezily
out wide Elysian Fields Street, around the lily-covered bayous,
to Milneburg-on-the-Lake. Now, a picnic at Milneburg is a thing
to be remembered for ever. One charters a rickety-looking,
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: the mountains, will it?"
"No, and pray God it may not be my last!"
"Are you afraid?"
"No, I'm not afraid, but I repeat that I think you were
wrong in starting."
"I should have been still more wrong had I stayed."
"Hold up, my pigeons!" cried the iemschik; it was his
business to obey, not to question.
Just then a distant noise was heard, shrill whistling
through the atmosphere, so calm a minute before. By the
light of a dazzling flash, almost immediately followed by
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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 La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: the low ground-floor. The house walls are washed with yellow color;
and door, and first-floor shutters, all the Venetian shutters of the
attic windows, all are painted green.
Entering the house, you find yourself in a little lobby with a crooked
staircase straight in front of you. It is a crazy wooden structure,
the spiral balusters are brown with age, and the steps themselves take
a new angle at every turn. The great old-fashioned paneled dining-
room, floored with square white tiles from Chateau-Regnault, is on
your right; to the left is the sitting-room, equally large, but here
the walls are not paneled; they have been covered instead with a
saffron-colored paper, bordered with green. The walnut-wood rafters
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