| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: give it as best I can in his own language, retaining his popular
parlance.
"Madame, folks from Croisic and those from Batz think this man is
guilty of something, and is doing a penance ordered by a famous rector
to whom he confessed his sin somewhere beyond Nantes. Others think
that Cambremer, that's his name, casts an evil fate on those who come
within his air, and so they always look which way the wind is before
they pass this rock. If it's nor'-westerly they wouldn't go by, no,
not if their errand was to get a bit of the true cross; they'd go
back, frightened. Others--they are the rich folks of Croisic--they say
that Cambremer has made a vow, and that's why people call him the Man
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: kissed her forehead.
"Keep these pieces," said he with a sort of cheerfulness. "Why should
you send me to Clichy? Am I not a prisoner here out of gratitude?"
This episode of their secret domestic life had occurred six months
previously, and had led to Steinbock's producing three finished works:
the seal in Hortense's possession, the group he had placed with the
curiosity dealer, and a beautiful clock to which he was putting the
last touches, screwing in the last rivets.
This clock represented the twelve Hours, charmingly personified by
twelve female figures whirling round in so mad and swift a dance that
three little Loves perched on a pile of fruit and flowers could not
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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 Paz by Honore de Balzac: sheet of azure without a cloud, April was nearly over. They had been
married two years, and Clementine had just discovered for the first
time that there was something resembling a secret or a mystery in her
household. The Pole, let us say it to his honor, is usually helpless
before a woman; he is so full of tenderness for her that in Poland he
becomes her inferior, though Polish women make admirable wives. Now a
Pole is still more easily vanquished by a Parisian woman. Consequently
Comte Adam, pressed by questions, did not even attempt the innocent
roguery of selling the suspected secret. It is always wise with a
woman to get some good out of a mystery; she will like you the better
for it, as a swindler respects an honest man the more when he finds he
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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 Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: little toper was familiar with them all, and I was determined that
all should be equally hateful to him. This I have now effected;
and since he declares that the taste, the smell, the sight of any
one of them is sufficient to make him sick, I have given up teasing
him about them, except now and then as objects of terror in cases
of misbehaviour. 'Arthur, if you're not a good boy I shall give
you a glass of wine,' or 'Now, Arthur, if you say that again you
shall have some brandy-and-water,' is as good as any other threat;
and once or twice, when he was sick, I have obliged the poor child
to swallow a little wine-and-water without the tartar-emetic, by
way of medicine; and this practice I intend to continue for some
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
