| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: "Stranger, before we go any further, there is a question I
should like to ask you. Who, and whence are you, and who gave
you those clothes? Did you not say you had come here from beyond
the sea?"
And Ulysses answered, "It would be a long story Madam, were I to
relate in full the tale of my misfortunes, for the hand of
heaven has been laid heavy upon me; but as regards your
question, there is an island far away in the sea which is called
'the Ogygian.' Here dwells the cunning and powerful goddess
Calypso, daughter of Atlas. She lives by herself far from all
neighbours human or divine. Fortune, however, brought me to her
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: The journalist was duly pitied; he would take precautions against
Dinah's jealousy when he accepted an invitation. And then he was
shamelessly unfaithful. Monsieur de Clagny, really in despair at
seeing Dinah in such disgraceful circumstances when she might have
been so rich, and in so wretched a position at the time when her
original ambitions would have been fulfilled, came to warn her, to
tell her--"You are betrayed," and she only replied, "I know it."
The lawyer was silenced; still he found his tongue to say one thing.
Madame de la Baudraye interrupted him when he had scarcely spoken a
word.
"Do you still love me?" she asked.
The Muse of the Department |
