| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: carried out in the strictest legal form; and if the authorities should
want confirmation by testimony, I shall produce a letter signed by my
own superintendent of the Khersonian rural police--that is to say, by
myself. Lastly, the supposed village in Kherson shall be called
Chichikovoe--better still Pavlovskoe, according to my Christian name."
In this fashion there germinated in our hero's brain that strange
scheme for which the reader may or may not be grateful, but for which
the author certainly is so, seeing that, had it never occurred to
Chichikov, this story would never have seen the light.
After crossing himself, according to the Russian custom, Chichikov set
about carrying out his enterprise. On pretence of selecting a place
Dead Souls |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: Republican agitators spurred them on to destroy the gilt crosses
which flashed like streaks of lightning in the immensity of the
ocean of houses; when Incredulity flaunted itself in the streets,
side by side with Rebellion, Bianchon once more detected Desplein
going into Saint-Sulpice. The doctor followed him, and knelt down
by him without the slightest notice or demonstration of surprise
from his friend. They both attended this mass of his founding.
"Will you tell me, my dear fellow," said Bianchon, as they left
the church, "the reason for your fit of monkishness? I have
caught you three times going to mass---- You! You must account to
me for this mystery, explain such a flagrant disagreement between
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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 Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: victim, rather than the accomplice, of her parents' vulgarities.
Julia Westall felt in a hot helpless way that something ought to
be done--that some one ought to speak to the girl's mother. And
just then Una glided up.
"Oh, Mrs. Westall, how beautiful it was!" Una fixed her with
large limpid eyes. "You believe it all, I suppose?" she asked
with seraphic gravity.
"All--what, my dear child?"
The girl shone on her. "About the higher life--the freer
expansion of the individual--the law of fidelity to one's self,"
she glibly recited.
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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 La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: corvette Iris, he watched the coast of France receding swiftly till it
became indistinguishable from the faint blue horizon line. In a little
while he felt that he was really alone, and lost in the wide ocean,
lost and alone in the world and in life.
"There is no need to cry, lad; there is a God for us all," said an old
sailor, with rough kindliness in his thick voice.
The boy thanked him with pride in his eyes. Then he bowed his head,
and resigned himself to a sailor's life. He was a father.
ANGOULEME, August, 1832.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
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