| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: to explain the double object of the organist's visit, and she gave him
the letter of the new deputy. While he was reading it, Madame de
l'Estorade said, aside, to Monsieur de Camps,--
"He seems to me much better, don't you think so?"
"Yes; there's scarcely a trace left of what we saw this morning. He
was too wrought up about his work. Going out did him good; and yet he
met with a rather unpleasant surprise at Rastignac's."
"What was it?" asked Madame de l'Estorade, anxiously.
"It seems that the affairs of your friend Sallenauve are going wrong."
"Thanks for the commission!" said Monsieur de l'Estorade, returning
the letter to his wife. "I shall take very good care not to guarantee
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: American continents. Some occur among the Cordilleras of the
Andes, where cities, and towns, and cultivated farms are to be
seen eight thousand feet above the level of the sea.
The Rocky Mountains, as we have already observed, occur sometimes
singly or in groups, and occasionally in collateral ridges.
Between these are deep valleys, with small streams winding
through them, which find their way into the lower plains,
augmenting as they proceed, and ultimately discharging themselves
into those vast rivers, which traverse the prairies like great
arteries, and drain the continent.
While the granitic summits of the Rocky Mountains are bleak and
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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 Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: noticed with especial pleasure, for it all tended to tranquillize
me, and prove to me that to my wife he stood in such a degree of
inferiority that, as she had told me, she could not stoop to his
level. Less because of my wife's assurances than because of the
atrocious sufferings which I felt in jealousy, I no longer
allowed myself to be jealous.
"In spite of that, I was not at ease with the musician or with
her during dinner-time and the time that elapsed before the
beginning of the music. Involuntarily I followed each of their
gestures and looks. The dinner, like all dinners, was tiresome
and conventional. Not long afterward the music began. He went
The Kreutzer Sonata |
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 Mad King by Edgar Rice Burroughs: room was flooded with light, which revealed to the American
a dozen Luthanian troopers headed by the murderous
Maenck.
Barney looked anxiously aloft. Would Joseph never lower
that rope! Within the room the men were searching. He
could hear Maenck directing them. Only a thin portiere
screened him from their view. It was but a matter of seconds
before they would investigate the window through which
Maenck knew the king had found ingress.
Yes! It had come.
"Look to the window," commanded Maenck. "He may
The Mad King |
