| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: great respect. 'Illustrious lady,' said he, 'my fortune is better
than I had presumed to hope: I am told by my women that I have a
princess in my camp.' 'Sir,' answered I, 'your women have deceived
themselves and you; I am not a princess, but an unhappy stranger
who intended soon to have left this country, in which I am now to
be imprisoned for ever.' 'Whoever or whencesoever you are,'
returned the Arab, 'your dress and that of your servants show your
rank to be high and your wealth to be great. Why should you, who
can so easily procure your ransom, think yourself in danger of
perpetual captivity? The purpose of my incursions is to increase
my riches, or, more property, to gather tribute. The sons of
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Message by Honore de Balzac: perspicacity rare at that age, to analyze the husband and wife
whose solitude was about to be so rudely disturbed.
The husband seemed to be a specimen of a certain type of
nobleman, the fairest ornaments of the provinces of our day. He
wore big shoes with stout soles to them. I put the shoes first
advisedly, for they made an even deeper impression upon me than a
seedy black coat, a pair of threadbare trousers, a flabby cravat,
or a crumpled shirt collar. There was a touch of the magistrate
in the man, a good deal more of the Councillor of the Prefecture,
all the self-importance of the mayor of the arrondissement, the
local autocrat, and the soured temper of the unsuccessful
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: This state of things will continue so long as France has her present
singular form of government, which has no analogy with that of any
other country; for there is no more resemblance between the English
and the French constitutions than between the two lands.
Thus Marcas' place was in the political press. Being poor and unable
to secure his election, he hoped to make a sudden appearance. He
resolved on making the greatest possible sacrifice for a man of
superior intellect, to work as a subordinate to some rich and
ambitious deputy. Like a second Bonaparte, he sought his Barras; the
new Colbert hoped to find a Mazarin. He did immense services, and he
did them then and there; he assumed no importance, he made no boast,
|
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 Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: habitations, came into his mind. "Don't heed it," said the old
woman, lighting him on with a miserable lamp;--"it is only he. . . .
. . . . .
The old woman having now satisfied herself, by ocular
demonstration, that her English guest, even if he was the devil,
had neither horn, hoof, nor tail, that he could bear the sign of
the cross without changing his form, and that, when he spoke, not a
puff of sulphur came out of his mouth, began to take courage, and
at length commenced her story, which, weary and comfortless as
Stanton was, . . . .
. . . . .
|
