| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: that his wife might have conceived.
This short scene made a considerable change in the writer's secret
scheming. As he smoked a second cigar, he seriously reviewed the
position.
His life with Madame de la Baudraye had hitherto cost him quite as
much as it had cost her. To use the language of business, the two
sides of the account balanced, and they could, if necessary, cry
quits. Considering how small his income was, and how hardly he earned
it, Lousteau regarded himself, morally speaking, as the creditor. It
was, no doubt, a favorable moment for throwing the woman over. Tired
at the end of three years of playing a comedy which never can become a
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: reflectively, into the square bright picture. He walked up and
down in front of this production, sociably took Strether's arm at
the points at which he stopped, surveyed it repeatedly from the
right and from the left, inclined a critical head to either
quarter, and, while he puffed a still more critical cigarette,
animadverted to his companion on this passage and that. Strether
sought relief--there were hours when he required it--in repeating
himself; it was in truth not to be blinked that Chad had a way.
The main question as yet was of what it was a way TO. It made
vulgar questions no more easy; but that was unimportant when all
questions save those of his own asking had dropped. That he was
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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 Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: elbows, though their touch was so light that she scarce felt it. To
release them was easy, and the next second her hands were on his
shoulders, her brave eyes raised to him.
"Mr. Wilding," she implored him, "you'll not let Richard be destroyed?"
He looked down at her with kindling glance, his arms slipped round her
lissom waist. "It is hard to deny you, Ruth," said he. "Yet not my
love of my own life compels me; but my duty, my loyalty to the cause
to which I am pledged. I were a traitor were I now to place myself
in peril."
She pressed.against him, her face so close to his that her breath
fanned his cheek, whither a faint colour crept in quick response.
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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 Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: As Wilbur came on deck he saw the crew of the schooner hurrying
forward, six of them, Chinamen every one, in brown jeans and black
felt hats. On the quarterdeck stood the Captain, barking his
orders.
"Consider the Lilee of the Vallee," bellowed the latter, as his
eye fell upon Wilbur the Transformed. "Clap on to that starboard
windlass brake, sonny."
Wilbur saw the Chinamen ranging themselves about what he guessed
was the windlass in the schooner's bow. He followed and took his
place among them, grasping one of the bars.
"Break down!" came the next order. Wilbur and the Chinamen
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