| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: Poiret. "Is that a pun?"
Thuillier. "No; a riddle."
Phellion. "I am sorry I interrupted you" [he dives into his office
desk]. "But" [to himself] "at any rate, I have stopped their talking
about Monsieur Rabourdin."
At this moment a scene was taking place between the minister and des
Lupeaulx which decided Rabourdin's fate. The general-secretary had
gone to see the minister in his private study before the breakfast-
hour, to make sure that La Briere was not within hearing.
"Your Excellency is not treating me frankly--"
"He means a quarrel," thought the minister; "and all because his
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: administration just now. But if Harris was a Greek, on what system of
international protocols did Hay interfere?"
"It ain't exactly set forth in the papers," says Caligula. "I suppose
it's a matter of sentiment. You know he wrote this poem, 'Little
Breeches'; and them Greeks wear little or none. But anyhow, John Hay
sends the Brooklyn and the Olympia over, and they cover Africa with
thirty-inch guns. And then Hay cables after the health of the /persona
grata/. 'And how are they this morning?' he wires. 'Is Burdick Harris
alive yet, or Mr. Raisuli dead?' And the King of Morocco sends up the
seventy thousand dollars, and they turn Burdick Harris loose. And
there's not half the hard feelings among the nations about this little
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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 Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: convent of Solovetsk, the convent of Troitsa, those of Saint
Antony and Saint Theodosia, at Kiev, that of Kazan, as well
as the church of the Old Believers, and they were now on
their way to Irkutsk, wearing the robe, the cowl, and the
clothes of serge.
As to the papa, or priest, he was a plain village pastor,
one of the six hundred thousand popular pastors which the
Russian Empire contains. He was clothed as miserably as
the moujiks, not being above them in social position; in
fact, laboring like a peasant on his plot of ground; baptis-
ing, marrying, burying. He had been able to protect his
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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 Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: And four wax candles in the darkened room,
Four rings of light upon the ceiling overhead,
An atmosphere of Juliet’s tomb
Prepared for all the things to be said, or left unsaid.
We have been, let us say, to hear the latest Pole
Transmit the Preludes, through his hair and finger tips.
"So intimate, this Chopin, that I think his soul
Should be resurrected only among friends
Some two or three, who will not touch the bloom
That is rubbed and questioned in the concert room."
--And so the conversation slips
Prufrock/Other Observations |
