| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: confiscation of the property of Protestants, and there's far more
reason for confiscating that of these revolutionists, who deny God,
destroy chapels, and persecute religion."
The abbe then joined example to precept by accepting, without the
slightest scruple, the novel sort of tithe which Marche-a-Terre
offered to him. "Besides," he added, "I can now devote all I possess
to the service of God and the king; for my nephew has joined the
Blues, and I disinherit him."
Coupiau was bemoaning himself and declaring that he was ruined.
"Join us," said Marche-a-Terre, "and you shall have your share."
"They'll say I let the coach be robbed on purpose if I return without
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: without, nor itself going out to any other, but invisible and imperceptible
by any sense, and of which the contemplation is granted to intelligence
only. And there is another nature of the same name with it, and like to
it, perceived by sense, created, always in motion, becoming in place and
again vanishing out of place, which is apprehended by opinion and sense.
And there is a third nature, which is space, and is eternal, and admits not
of destruction and provides a home for all created things, and is
apprehended without the help of sense, by a kind of spurious reason, and is
hardly real; which we beholding as in a dream, say of all existence that it
must of necessity be in some place and occupy a space, but that what is
neither in heaven nor in earth has no existence. Of these and other things
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: of reasons, how to part with her daughter; and as, though her own plans
were not yet wholly fixed, she trusted it would ere long be in her power to
take Frederica into the country herself, concluded by declining entirely to
profit by such unexampled attention. Mrs. Vernon persevered, however, in
the offer of it, and though Lady Susan continued to resist, her resistance
in the course of a few days seemed somewhat less formidable. The lucky
alarm of an influenza decided what might not have been decided quite so
soon. Lady Susan's maternal fears were then too much awakened for her to
think of anything but Frederica's removal from the risk of infection; above
all disorders in the world she most dreaded the influenza for her
daughter's constitution!
Lady Susan |
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 Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: a thicket-hedge. No wonder if he is dismayed. "Lady, do you
stay here," he says, "beside this thicket-hedge a while, until
these people shall have passed. I do not wish them to catch
sight of you, for I do not know what manner of people they are,
nor of what they go in search. I trust we may not attract their
attention. But I see nowhere any place where we could take
refuge, should they wish to injure us. I know not if any harm
may come to me, but not from fear shall I fail to sally out
against them. And if any one assails me, I shall not fail to
joust with him. Yet, I am so sore and weary that it is no wonder
if I grieve. Now to meet them I must go, and do you stay quiet
|
