| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: his property; but they rummaged, with the intelligence of rats, into
every nook and corner of the old man's house, left it as naked as a
corpse, and sold the wares it contained in their own shop.
Once a year, in December, Sauviat went to Paris in one of the public
conveyances. The gossips of the neighborhood concluded that in order
to conceal from others the amount of his fortune, he invested it
himself on these occasions. It was known later that, having been
connected in his youth with one of the most celebrated dealers in
metal, an Auvergnat like himself, who was living in Paris, Sauviat
placed his funds with the firm of Bresac, the mainspring and spine of
that famous association known by the name of the "Bande Noire," which,
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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 Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: making a threatening gesture towards the compound, where he had
heard Babalatchi's voice, he overturned the table with his foot
in a great crash of smashed crockery. He muttered yet menacingly
to himself, then his head fell on his breast, his eyes closed,
and with a deep sigh he fell asleep.
That night--for the first time in its history--the peaceful and
flourishing settlement of Sambir saw the lights shining about
"Almayer's Folly." These were the lanterns of the boats hung up
by the seamen under the verandah where the two officers were
holding a court of inquiry into the truth of the story related to
them by Babalatchi. Babalatchi had regained all his importance.
Almayer's Folly |
