| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: (sharply differing from that held by young people to-day who see
in every girl merely a female seeking a mate) was, I think, of
value. The girls, perceiving such adoration, endeavoured with
more or less success to be goddesses.
Such was the view Kasatsky held of women, and that was how he
regarded his fiancee. He was particularly in love that day, but
did not experience any sensual desire for her. On the contrary
he regarded her with tender adoration as something unattainable.
He rose to his full height, standing before her with both hands
on his sabre.
'I have only now realized what happiness a man can experience!
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: troubled waters of July. Insolent and beautiful as she was, Claudine
possessed handsome souvenirs, but very little ready money; still, her
jewels were magnificent, and she had as fine furniture as any one in
Paris.
"On quitting the stage when she, forgotten to-day, was yet in the
height of her fame, one thought possessed her--she meant du Bruel to
marry her; and at the time of this story, you must understand that the
marriage had taken place, but was kept a secret. How do women of her
class contrive to make a man marry them after seven or eight years of
intimacy? What springs do they touch? What machinery do they set in
motion? But, however comical such domestic dramas may be, we are not
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: of the dear little old objects on her chimney-piece. Her
interruption made him for an instant look at her harder. "I
shouldn't care if you did!" he laughed, however; "and it's only a
figure, at any rate, for the way I now feel. NOT to have followed
my perverse young course - and almost in the teeth of my father's
curse, as I may say; not to have kept it up, so, 'over there,' from
that day to this, without a doubt or a pang; not, above all, to
have liked it, to have loved it, so much, loved it, no doubt, with
such an abysmal conceit of my own preference; some variation from
THAT, I say, must have produced some different effect for my life
and for my 'form.' I should have stuck here - if it had been
|
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 The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: seized his face between her hands in a passion of triumphant love
and kissed him.
And then he found himself being kissed by Mrs. Morris.
She kissed him thrice, with solemnity, with thankfulness, with
relief, as if in the act of kissing she transferred to him precious
and entirely incalculable treasures.
CHAPTER THE FOURTH
THE SPIRITED HONEYMOON
1
It was a little after sunrise one bright morning in September that
Benham came up on to the deck of the sturdy Austrian steamboat that
|
