The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: girl's breast.
"Are you the daughter of Beauvouloir, monseigneur's physician?" asked
the baron when Gabrielle's first alarm had subsided.
"Yes, monsieur."
"I have matters of the utmost importance to confide to you. I am the
Baron d'Artagnon, lieutenant of the company of men-at-arms commanded
by Monseigneur the Duc d'Herouville."
Gabrielle, under the circumstances in which she and her lover stood,
was struck by these words, and by the frank tone with which the
soldier said them.
"Your nurse is here; she may overhear us. Come this way," said the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: no weight, and seemed happy in seeing me in good health and well
dressed. It was, in fact, the devoted affection of the lower
classes, the love of a girl of the people transferred to a
loftier level. Bourgeat did all my errands, woke me at night at
any fixed hour, trimmed my lamp, cleaned our landing; as good as
a servant as he was as a father, and as clean as an English girl.
He did all the housework. Like Philopoemen, he sawed our wood,
and gave to all he did the grace of simplicity while preserving
his dignity, for he seemed to understand that the end ennobles
every act.
"When I left this good fellow, to be house surgeon at the Hotel-
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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 Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: tinued, "for we shall both be dead within a few minutes -- just
give him time enough to get the machine under way, and if he
can rise a hundred feet from the ground I shall never need
fear him more."
"God!" cried the man. "Is there no way that you can dis-
suade him? Promise him anything. Anything that you want.
I have money, more money than that poor fool could imagine
there was in the whole world. With it he can buy anything
that money will purchase, fine clothes and food and women, all
the women he wants. Tell him this and tell him that if he will
spare you I give him my word that I will fetch it all to him."
Tarzan the Untamed |
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 Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: upon her lever arm is a simple traction.
When she feels that the pressure
exerted is great enough, she directs the
two men to exert a vertical stress strong
enough to cause the stick to descend. They
then imagine that they are exerting a
VERTICAL stress, while in reality their
stresses are HORIZONTAL and tend to keep
the stick in a vertical position in order to
react against the pressure exerted at the
lower end of the stick.
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |