| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: white than the whitest--the motto of the queen whose name began, like
that of Catherine, with a C, and which applied as well to the daughter
of Louis XII. as to the mother of the last Valois; for no suspicion,
in spite of the violence of Calvinist calumny, has tarnished the
fidelity of Catherine de' Medici to Henri II.
The queen-mother, still charged with the care of two young children
(him who was afterward Duc d'Alencon, and Marguerite, the wife of
Henri IV., the sister whom Charles IX. called Margot), had need of the
whole of the first upper floor.
The king, Francois II., and the queen, Mary Stuart, occupied, on the
second floor, the royal apartments which had formerly been those of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: I suffer cannot be remedied: what I have lost cannot be supplied.
My daughter, my only daughter, from whose tenderness I expected all
the comforts of my age, died last night of a fever. My views, my
purposes, my hopes, are at an end: I am now a lonely being,
disunited from society."
"Sir," said the Prince, "mortality is an event by which a wise man
can never be surprised: we know that death is always near, and it
should therefore always be expected." "Young man," answered the
philosopher, "you speak like one that has never felt the pangs of
separation." "Have you then forgot the precepts," said Rasselas,
"which you so powerfully enforced? Has wisdom no strength to arm
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: Jetter. God help us! This is a sad business.
Clara. Stay! Stay! Shrink not away at the sound of his name, to meet
whom ye were wont to press forward so joyously!--When rumour
announced his approach, when the cry arose, "Egmont comes! He comes
from Ghent!"--then happy indeed were those citizens who dwelt in the
streets through which he was to pass. And when the neighing of his steed
was heard, did not every one throw aside his work, while a ray of hope
and joy, like a sunbeam from his countenance, stole over the toil-worn
faces that peered from every window. Then, as ye stood in the doorways,
ye would lift up your children in your arms, and pointing to him, exclaim:
"See, that is Egmont, he who towers above the rest! 'Tis from bird that ye
Egmont |
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 Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: Rochester. I've got to hand it to you for your mysterious
disappearances in and out of this apartment, and for murdering Mr.
Turnbull right in the police court in the presence of the judge,
police officials, and spectators."
Kent stepped forward at sight of the handcuffs and laid a restraining
hand on the detective's shoulder. Rochester saw the movement,
guessed Kent's intention, and smiled.
"We can settle the case here," he said cheerfully. "No need of
troubling the police judge. Now, Mr. Detective, how did I kill
Jimmie Turnbull before all those people without any one becoming
aware of the fact?"
The Red Seal |
