| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: be an angel for him."
Next day she wrote. It was a billet of the kind in which the
intellects of the ten thousand Sevignes that Paris now can number
particularly excel. And yet only a Duchesse de Langeais, brought
up by Mme la Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, could have written
that delicious note; no other woman could complain without
lowering herself; could spread wings in such a flight without
draggling her pinions in humiliation; rise gracefully in revolt;
scold without giving offence; and pardon without compromising her
personal dignity.
Julien went with the note. Julien, like his kind, was the victim
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: It was to hide his condition from the duchess that she persuaded him
to go to Tours and transact business with his notaries. I alone, as
she had truly said, knew the dark secret of Clochegourde. Having
learned by experience how the pure air and the blue sky of the lovely
valley calmed the excitements and soothed the morbid griefs of the
diseased mind, and what beneficial effect the life at Clochegourde had
upon the health of her children, she opposed her mother's desire that
she should leave it with reasons which the overbearing woman, who was
less grieved than mortified by her daughter's bad marriage, vigorously
combated.
Henriette saw that the duchess cared little for Jacques and Madeleine,
The Lily of the Valley |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: Government. When Vergennes, the French Minister, saw the terms, he
remarked in disgust that England would seem to have bought a peace rather
than made one. By the treaty we got the Northwest Territory and the basin
of the Ohio River to the Mississippi. Our recent friend, the French King,
was much opposed to our having so much territory. It was our recent
enemy, England, who agreed that we should have it. This was the result of
that game of jackstraws.
Let us remember several things: in our Revolution, France had befriended
us, not because she loved us so much, but because she loved England so
little. In the Treaty of Paris, England stood with us, not because she
loved us so much, but because she loved France so little. We must cherish
|
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 Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: "Yes," I said," it's a nice bit of luggage, isn't it?"
He said it was.
"Don't you think it's that dressing-case that does it? Lends an
air of distinction to the rest. Bucks it all up, as it were,
eh?"
Before he could reply:
"So you're down for the week-end too," said a voice I should have
recognized amid the hubbub of the heavenly choir. " Staying at
Watereaton?
It was she.
Such a pretty girl. Very fair, very blue eyes, a beautiful skin,
The Brother of Daphne |
