| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: surroundings tinged with a general color of age, the boy had only seen
friends worthy of respect. All of those about him, with the exception
of the Chevalier, had example of venerable age, were elderly men and
women, sedate of manner, decorous and sententious of speech. He had
been petted by those women in gray gowns and embroidered mittens
described by Blondet. The antiquated splendors of his father's house
were as little calculated as possible to suggest frivolous thoughts;
and lastly, he had been educated by a sincerely religious abbe,
possessed of all the charm of old age, which has dwelt in two
centuries, and brings to the Present its gifts of the dried roses of
experience, the faded flowers of the old customs of its youth.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: shall not be for me. Shall I go hank myself? Vat is life midout de
divine flame of joy dat I have known? Mein Gott, mein Gott!"
The old man snatched off the false hair he had combed in with his gray
hairs these three months past.
A piercing shriek from Europe made Nucingen quail to his very bowels.
The poor banker rose and walked upstairs on legs that were drunk with
the bowl of disenchantment he had just swallowed to the dregs, for
nothing is more intoxicating than the wine of disaster.
At the door of her room he could see Esther stiff on her bed, blue
with poison--dead!
He went up to the bed and dropped on his knees.
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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 Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: quite free.) "But we have other things to speak," he continued,
bitterly. "Ye've made a sore hash of my brig; I haven't hands
enough left to work her; and my first officer (whom I could ill
spare) has got your sword throughout his vitals, and passed
without speech. There is nothing left me, sir, but to put back
into the port of Glasgow after hands; and there (by your leave)
ye will find them that are better able to talk to you."
"Ay?" said Alan; "and faith, I'll have a talk with them mysel'!
Unless there's naebody speaks English in that town, I have a
bonny tale for them. Fifteen tarry sailors upon the one side,
and a man and a halfling boy upon the other! O, man, it's
Kidnapped |
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 Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: which are said to be deposited in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Strype,
vicar of the parish of Low Leyton.
From hence the great road passed up to Leytonstone, a place by some
known now as much by the sign of the "Green Man," formerly a lodge
upon the edge of the forest; and crossing by Wanstead House,
formerly the dwelling of Sir Josiah Child, now of his son the Lord
Castlemain (of which hereafter), went over the same river which we
now pass at Ilford; and passing that part of the great forest which
we now call Hainault Forest, came into that which is now the great
road, a little on this side the Whalebone, a place on the road so
called because the rib-bone of a great whale, which was taken in
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