| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: the middle square of the chess-board: she was at the very centre of
the interest and of the truth; she appeared to me to be tied into the
knot of it. It was not a case for ordinary love-making; this girl
contained the last chapter of a romance, and from that moment all my
attentions were devoted to Rosalie. By dint of studying the girl, I
observed in her, as in every woman whom we make our ruling thought, a
variety of good qualities; she was clean and neat; she was handsome, I
need not say; she soon was possessed of every charm that desire can
lend to a woman in whatever rank of life. A fortnight after the
notary's visit, one evening, or rather one morning, in the small
hours, I said to Rosalie:
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: influence of an usher of the Royal cabinet, backstairs influence, it
is true, but still sufficient, since it had brought him his first
appointment as justice of the peace, and the second as examining
magistrate. At the time of his marriage, his father only settled an
income of six thousand francs upon him (the amount of his mother's
fortune, which he could legally claim), and as Mlle. Thirion brought
him no more than twenty thousand francs as her portion, the young
couple knew the hardships of hidden poverty. The salary of a
provincial justice of the peace does not exceed fifteen hundred
francs, while an examining magistrate's stipend is augmented by
something like a thousand francs, because his position entails
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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 Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: "Susy, Susy, then--my Susy--Susy! And you've only said mine
once, you know."
"Nick!" she sighed, at peace, as if the one syllable were a
magic seed that hung out great branches to envelop them.
"Well, then, Susy, be reasonable. Come!"
"Reasonable--oh, reasonable!" she sobbed through laughter.
"Unreasonable, then! That's even better."
She freed herself, and drew back gently. "Nick, I swore I
wouldn't leave them; and I can't. It's not only my promise to
their mother--it's what they've been to me themselves. You
don't, know ... You can't imagine the things they've taught me.
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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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: humanity. The perverse little devil, since she would not be taken
with kindness, must even go with pricking.
It was bleak and bitter cold, and, except a cavalcade of stride-
legged ladies and a pair of post-runners, the road was dead
solitary all the way to Pradelles. I scarce remember an incident
but one. A handsome foal with a bell about his neck came charging
up to us upon a stretch of common, sniffed the air martially as one
about to do great deeds, and suddenly thinking otherwise in his
green young heart, put about and galloped off as he had come, the
bell tinkling in the wind. For a long while afterwards I saw his
noble attitude as he drew up, and heard the note of his bell; and
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