| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: head and closing his eyes. "I wouldn't wish a wild Tatar such a
life."
Soon everything was still. Nothing was audible except the
sniffing of Savely and the slow, even breathing of the sleeping
po stman, who uttered a deep prolonged "h-h-h" at every breath.
From time to time there was a sound like a creaking wheel in his
throat, and his twitching foot rustled against the bag.
Savely fidgeted under the quilt and looked round slowly. His wife
was sitting on the stool, and with her hands pressed against her
cheeks was gazing at the postman's face. Her face was immovable,
like the face of some one frightened and astonished.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: quarters in a garret, live virtuously, and wed your work, or set
about the thing in a different way."
Vautrin winked and leered in the direction of Mlle. Taillefer to
enforce his remarks by a look which recalled the late tempting
proposals by which he had sought to corrupt the student's mind.
Several days went by, and Rastignac lived in a whirl of gaiety.
He dined almost every day with Mme. de Nucingen, and went
wherever she went, only returning to the Rue Neuve-Sainte-
Genevieve in the small hours. He rose at mid-day, and dressed to
go into the Bois with Delphine if the day was fine, squandering
in this way time that was worth far more than he knew. He turned
Father Goriot |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: They're all over the world; so we ask where they are, and sometimes
they're ill, or they're stationed in a cholera district, or in
some place where it only rains once in five months. Mrs. Hunt,"
she said with a smile, "had a son who was hugged to death by
a bear."
Here she stopped and looked at Hewet to see whether he was amused
by the same things that amused her. She was reassured. But she
thought it necessary to apologise again; she had been talking too much.
"You can't conceive how it interests me," he said.
Indeed, his cigarette had gone out, and he had to light another.
"Why does it interest you?" she asked.
|
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 Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: stranger would readily have guessed that they came there every
evening.
"Ah, you are here already," said the notary, perceiving the young
banker Gobenheim, a connection of Gobenheim-Keller, the head of the
great banking house in Paris.
This young man with a livid face--a blonde of the type with black
eyes, whose immovable glance has an indescribable fascination, sober
in speech as in conduct, dressed in black, lean as a consumptive, but
nevertheless vigorously framed--visited the family of his former
master and the house of his cashier less from affection than from
self-interest. Here they played whist at two sous a point; a dress-
Modeste Mignon |
