| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: all my faculties to demand of me a formal promise to accompany
him. I promised all that he asked, for I was incapable of
sustaining a discussion, and I needed some affection to help me
to live, after what had happened. I was too thankful that my
father was willing to console me under such a calamity.
All that I remember is that on that day, about five o'clock, he
took me with him in a post-chaise. Without a word to me, he had
had my luggage packed and put up behind the chaise with his own,
and so he carried me off. I did not realize what I was doing
until the town had disappeared and the solitude of the road
recalled to me the emptiness of my heart. Then my tears again
Camille |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Aspern Papers by Henry James: to emphasize the fact that I was in the enjoyment of a favor
as rigidly limited as it had been liberally bestowed.
She had given me part of her house, and now she would
not give me even a morsel of paper with her name on it.
Let me say that even at first this did not make me too miserable,
for the whole episode was essentially delightful to me.
I foresaw that I should have a summer after my own literary heart,
and the sense of holding my opportunity was much greater than
the sense of losing it. There could be no Venetian business
without patience, and since I adored the place I was much
more in the spirit of it for having laid in a large provision.
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