| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: first to the Princess and then to the ladies as best I could. I
afterwards watched the other lady visitors and saw that they put
their right hand up near their head as our soldiers salute, and
courtesied to the Princess, her daughter-in-law and her eldest
daughter. They then went over to a little table on which was a
silver sacrificial set, consisting of a wine tankard, a great
bowl, and a number of tiny cups holding but two tablespoonfuls.
They took the cup in its little saucer, and, facing the beautiful
canopied catafalque where the Dowager Princess was lying in
state, they raised the cup as high as their head three times,
emptying and refilling it each time. The mourners prostrated
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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 Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: more imaginative than imitative, were boldly displayed on some
perennial caps! The Presidente Boirouge, Bianchon's cousin, exchanged
a few words with the doctor, from whom she extracted some "advice
gratis" by expatiating on certain pains in the chest, which she
declared were nervous, but which he ascribed to chronic indigestion.
"Simply drink a cup of tea every day an hour after dinner, as the
English do, and you will get over it, for what you suffer from is an
English malady," Bianchon replied very gravely.
"He is certainly a great physician," said the Presidente, coming back
to Madame de Clagny, Madame Popinot-Chandier, and Madame Gorju, the
Mayor's wife.
The Muse of the Department |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: these women aren't WOMANLY. You know they aren't."
That kind of talk always set Jeff going; and I gradually grew
to side with him. "Then you don't call a breed of women whose
one concern is motherhood--womanly?" he asked.
"Indeed I don't," snapped Terry. "What does a man care for
motherhood--when he hasn't a ghost of a chance at fatherhood?
And besides--what's the good of talking sentiment when we are
just men together? What a man wants of women is a good deal
more than all this `motherhood'!"
We were as patient as possible with Terry. He had lived about
nine months among the "Colonels" when he made that outburst;
Herland |
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 Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: Maitre Mathias detected a look of joy on her face when she saw that
the difficulties were being removed: that joy, and the previous
forgetfulness of the diamonds, which were now brought forward like
fresh troops, confirmed his suspicions.
"The scene has been prepared between them as gamblers prepare the
cards to ruin a pigeon," thought the old notary. "Is this poor boy,
whom I saw born, doomed to be plucked alive by that woman, roasted by
his very love, and devoured by his wife? I, who have nursed these fine
estates for years with such care, am I to see them ruined in a single
night? Three million and a half to be hypothecated for eleven hundred
thousand francs these women will force him to squander!"
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