| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: and tell him about the customs of the office."
The next day the new clerk found the register lying on his desk. He
took it up, but after reading a few pages he began to laugh, said
nothing to the assembled clerks, and laid the book down again.
"Messieurs," he said, when the hour of departure came at five o'clock,
"I have a cousin who is head clerk of the notary Maitre Leopold
Hannequin; I will ask his advice as to what I ought to do for my
welcome."
"That looks ill," cried Godeschal, when Frederic had gone, "he hasn't
the cut of a novice, that fellow!"
"We'll get some fun out of him yet," said Oscar.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;
Resembling sire and child and happy mother,
Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'
IX
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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 The Virginian by Owen Wister: she held them, and, looking up, she saw that his eyes were closed
with misery. Then he opened them, and in their steady look she
read her answer. He unclasped her hands from holding him, and
raised her to her feet.
"I have no right to kiss you any more," he said. And then, before
his desire could break him down from this, he was gone, and she
was alone.
She did not fall, or totter, but stood motionless. And next--it
seemed a moment and it seemed eternity--she heard in the distance
a shot, and then two shots. Out of the window she saw people
beginning to run. At that she turned and fled to her room, and
The Virginian |
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 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: in Hanover-square. You must come, indeed. I am sure
I shall be very happy to chaperon you at any time till
I am confined, if Mrs. Dashwood should not like to go
into public."
They thanked her; but were obliged to resist all
her entreaties.
"Oh, my love," cried Mrs. Palmer to her husband,
who just then entered the room--"you must help me to
persuade the Miss Dashwoods to go to town this winter."
Her love made no answer; and after slightly bowing
to the ladies, began complaining of the weather.
Sense and Sensibility |
