| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: the admirable presence of mind you all know."
"How deeply I pity the second!" exclaimed the Baronne de Nucingen.
A scarcely perceptible smile on de Marsay's pale lips made Delphine de
Nucingen color.
"How we do forget!" said the Baron de Nucingen.
The great banker's simplicity was so extremely droll, that his wife,
who was de Marsay's "second," could not help laughing like every one
else.
"You are all ready to condemn the woman," said Lady Dudley. "Well, I
quite understand that she did not regard her marriage as an act of
inconstancy. Men will never distinguish between constancy and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: gratify her own, to which he seemed to have an undoubted right,
when she read on the margin of an impassioned letter, written in
the well-known hand--"Rousseau alone, the true Prometheus of
sentiment, possessed the fire of genius necessary to pourtray the
passion, the truth of which goes so directly to the heart."
Maria was again true to the hour, yet had finished Rousseau,
and begun to transcribe some selected passages; unable to quit
either the author or the window, before she had a glimpse of the
countenance she daily longed to see; and, when seen, it conveyed
no distinct idea to her mind where she had seen it before. He must
have been a transient acquaintance; but to discover an acquaintance
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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 The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: thickened and condensed, are by the sun's generative heat, most of
them, hatched, and in three days made living creatures. and these of
several shapes and colours; some being hard and tough, some smooth
and soft; some are horned in their head, some in their tail, some have
none; some have hair, some none: some have sixteen feet, some less,
and some have none: but, as our Topsel hath with great diligence
observed, those which have none, move upon the earth, or upon broad
leaves, their motion being not unlike to the waves of the sea. Some of
them he also observes to be bred of the eggs of other caterpillars, and
that those in their time turn to be butterflies; and again, that their eggs
turn the following year to be caterpillars And some affirm, that every
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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 The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: appear.
As the motor drove away, Mrs. Cavendish suddenly detached herself
from the group, and moved across the drive to the lawn to meet a
tall bearded man who had been evidently making for the house.
The colour rose in her cheeks as she held out her hand to him.
"Who is that?" I asked sharply, for instinctively I distrusted
the man.
"That's Dr. Bauerstein," said John shortly.
"And who is Dr. Bauerstein?"
"He's staying in the village doing a rest cure, after a bad
nervous breakdown. He's a London specialist; a very clever
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
