| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: grace of love."
"Seraphita, am I worthy to belong to a woman?"
"Ah, now," she said, smiling, "you are suddenly very modest; is it a
snare? A woman is always so touched to see her weakness glorified.
Well, come and take tea with me the day after to-morrow evening; good
Monsieur Becker will be here, and Minna, the purest and most artless
creature I have known on earth. Leave me now, my friend; I need to
make long prayers and expiate my sins."
"You, can you commit sin?"
"Poor friend! if we abuse our power, is not that the sin of pride? I
have been very proud to-day. Now leave me, till to-morrow."
Seraphita |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: I looked at her with a smile.
"But I thought that that was reserved for your particular
friends."
"So it is."
"Then, my dear senora, it would be impertinent of me."
"But if I request it?"
"I have said--anything in or out of reason. And, of course, I
am one of the family."
"Is that the only reason?"
I began to understand her, and I answered her somewhat dryly:
"My dear Desiree, there can be none other."
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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 Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: "Long live Caesar!"
This homage was repeated by Vitellius, Antipas, and the priests.
But now, beginning at the farthest end of the banqueting-hall, a
murmur of surprise and admiration swept through the multitude. A
beautiful young girl had just entered the apartment, and stood
motionless for an instant, while all eyes were turned upon her.
Through a drapery of filmy blue gauze that veiled her head and throat,
her arched eyebrows, tiny ears, and ivory-white skin could be
distinguished. A scarf of shot-silk fell from her shoulders, and was
caught up at the waist by a girdle of fretted silver. Her full
trousers, of black silk, were embroidered in a pattern of silver
Herodias |
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 Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: fire-light, with a somewhat peculiar but not unkind expression.
"Madam," he cried, thinking the laughter to have been an illusion
of his hearing, but still, from her changed looks, hoping to have
touched her heart, "madam, will not this content you? I give up
all to undo what I have done amiss; I make heaven certain for Lord
Risingham. And all this upon the very day that I have won my
spurs, and thought myself the happiest young gentleman on ground."
"O boy," she said - "good boy!"
And then, to the extreme surprise of Dick, she first very tenderly
wiped the tears away from his cheeks, and then, as if yielding to a
sudden impulse, threw both her arms about his neck, drew up his
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