| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: nor write, she answered a letter with a blow of her fist, considering
it an insult. In the main she was a good woman, with a high-colored
face, and a foulard tied over her cap, who mastered with bugle voice
the wagoners when they brought the merchandise; such squabbles usually
ending in a bottle of the "right sort." She had no disputes with the
agriculturists who consigned her the fruit, for they corresponded in
ready money,--the only possible method of communication, to receive
which Mere Madou paid them a visit in the fine season of the year.
Birotteau found this shrewish trader among sacks of filberts, nuts,
and chestnuts.
"Good-morning, my dear lady," said Birotteau with a jaunty air.
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: that take the waves aslant and havens of the sea, I fear
lest the storm-winds catch me again and bear me over the
teeming deep, making heavy moan; or else some god may even
send forth against me a monster from out of the shore
water; and many such pastureth the renowned Amphitrite. For
I know how wroth against me hath been the great Shaker of
the Earth.'
Whilst yet he pondered these things in his heart and mind,
a great wave bore him to the rugged shore. There would he
have been stript of his skin and all his bones been broken,
but that the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, put a thought into
The Odyssey |
