| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: the country and the names of the seven castles which Nodier could not
discover."
"The one thing wanting in one of the cleverest skits of our time,"
said the Marquise.
"You can form your own opinion of La Palferine from a few
characteristic touches," continued Nathan. "He once came upon a friend
of his, a fellow-Bohemian, involved in a dispute on the boulevard with
a bourgeois who chose to consider himself affronted. To the modern
powers that be, Bohemia is insolent in the extreme. There was talk of
calling one another out.
" 'One moment,' interposed La Palferine, as much Lauzun for the
|
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 Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: unwise and of no understanding upon a throne of honour, and
making the dishonoured and obscure to be honoured of all.
"One may see how the race of mankind may never abide before the
face of the cruel tyranny of the world. But, as when a dove
fleeing from an eagle or a hawk flitteth from place to place, now
beating against this tree, now against that bush, and then anon
against the clefts of the rocks and all manner of bramble-thorns,
and, nowhere finding any safe place of refuge, is wearied with
continual tossing and crossing to and fro, so are they which are
flustered by the present world. They labour painfully under
unreasoning impulse, on no sure or firm bases: they know not to
|
