| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: painter.
David's physique was of the kind that Nature gives to the fighter, the
man born to struggle in obscurity, or with the eyes of all men turned
upon him. The strong shoulders, rising above the broad chest, were in
keeping with the full development of his whole frame. With his thick
crop of black hair, his fleshy, high-colored, swarthy face, supported
by a thick neck, he looked at first sight like one of Boileau's
canons: but on a second glance there was that in the lines about the
thick lips, in the dimple of the chin, in the turn of the square
nostrils, with the broad irregular line of central cleavage, and,
above all, in the eyes, with the steady light of an all-absorbing love
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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 Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: stood up on his box, like a man who was to listen, an attentive
sentinel, for the least sound. One of the other three took his stand
outside the gate in the street; the second waited in the garden,
leaning against the wall; the last, who carried in his hand a bunch of
keys, accompanied De Marsay.
"Henri," said his companion to him, "we are betrayed."
"By whom, my good Ferragus?"
"They are not all asleep," replied the chief of the Devourers; "it is
absolutely certain that some one in the house has neither eaten nor
drunk. . . . Look! see that light!"
"We have a plan of the house; from where does it come?"
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: creatures she has met with such consideration and generosity as I, for
my part, ascribe to the ascendency of virtue so pure that even vice is
compelled to respect it."
"Hope on," said Andrea. "Perhaps you have reached the end of your
trials. And while waiting for the time when my endeavor, seconding
yours, shall set your labors in a true light, allow me, as a fellow-
countryman and an artist like yourself, to offer you some little
advances on the undoubted success of your score."
"All that has to do with matters of material existence I leave to my
wife," replied Gambara. "She will decide as to what we may accept
without a blush from so thorough a gentleman as you seem to be. For my
Gambara |
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 Contrast by Royall Tyler: fashion? and we follow it indiscriminately, because
it is so.
CHARLOTTE
Therefore it is, that when large hoops are in fashion,
we often see many a plump girl lost in the immensity
of a hoop-petticoat, whose want of height and en-bon-
point would never have been remarked in any other
dress. When the high head-dress is the mode, how
then do we see a lofty cushion, with a profusion of
gauze, feathers, and ribband, supported by a face no
bigger than an apple! whilst a broad full-faced lady,
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