| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: her father is worse. It will be time enough then to tell her bad
news!' I begged and I prayed, but, there! it was no good. Then I
asked for M. le Baron, but he was out."
"To think that neither of his daughters should come!" exclaimed
Rastignac. "I will write to them both."
"Neither of them!" cried the old man, sitting upright in bed.
"They are busy, they are asleep, they will not come! I knew that
they would not. Not until you are dying do you know your
children. . . . Oh! my friend, do not marry; do not have
children! You give them life; they give you your deathblow. You
bring them into the world, and they send you out of it. No, they
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: of picketed elephants, and Little Toomai was the hero of it all.
And the big brown elephant catchers, the trackers and drivers and
ropers, and the men who know all the secrets of breaking the
wildest elephants, passed him from one to the other, and they
marked his forehead with blood from the breast of a newly killed
jungle-cock, to show that he was a forester, initiated and free of
all the jungles.
And at last, when the flames died down, and the red light of
the logs made the elephants look as though they had been dipped in
blood too, Machua Appa, the head of all the drivers of all the
Keddahs--Machua Appa, Petersen Sahib's other self, who had never
The Jungle Book |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: success of his past efforts so stimulated Dumay's sense of duty, that
he determined not to go to Paris to see after his own fortune as
announced by his patron, until he had guessed the riddle of Modeste's
heart. These friends, to whom feelings were more precious than
interests, well knew that unless the daughter were pure and innocent,
the father would die of grief when he came to know the death of
Bettina and the blindness of his wife. The distress of poor Dumay made
such an impression on the Latournelles that they even forgot their
parting with Exupere, whom they had sent off that morning to Paris.
During dinner, while the three were alone, Monsieur and Madame
Latournelle and Butscha turned the problem over and over in their
Modeste Mignon |
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 Contrast by Royall Tyler: knowing I was a cute fellow, because I could make a
roaring noise, clapt me on the shoulder and said, "You
are a d---d hearty cock, smite my timbers!" I told
him so I was, but I thought he need not swear so,
and make use of such naughty words.
JESSAMY
The savage!--Well, and did you see the man with
his tricks?
JONATHAN
Why, I vow, as I was looking out for him, they
lifted up a great green cloth and let us look right into
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