| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: mental prayer.
So, from the time she was six years old the little orphan lived under
the religious influence of the abbe, just as she had already come
under the educational training of her friend Jordy.
The captain, formerly a professor in a military academy, having a
taste for grammar and for the differences among European languages,
had studied the problem of a universal tongue. This learned man,
patient as most old scholars are, delighted in teaching Ursula to read
and write. He taught her also the French language and all she needed
to know of arithmetic. The doctor's library afforded a choice of books
which could be read by a child for amusement as well as instruction.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: Is too much love to his unhappy friend."
Too late he speaks: the sword, which fury guides,
Driv'n with full force, had pierc'd his tender sides.
Down fell the beauteous youth: the yawning wound
Gush'd out a purple stream, and stain'd the ground.
His snowy neck reclines upon his breast,
Like a fair flow'r by the keen share oppress'd;
Like a white poppy sinking on the plain,
Whose heavy head is overcharg'd with rain.
Despair, and rage, and vengeance justly vow'd,
Drove Nisus headlong on the hostile crowd.
Aeneid |
