| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: him.
Calculating the distance by the number of his steps, he arrived at the
exact spot where he had noticed an oblique fissure; and for three
hours until morning he worked in continuous and furious fashion,
breathing with difficulty through the interstices in the upper flag-
tones, assailed with anguish, and twenty times believing that he was
going to die. At last a crack was heard, and a huge stone ricocheting
on the lower arches rolled to the ground,--and suddenly a cataract, an
entire river, fell from the skies onto the plain. The aqueduct, being
cut through in the centre, was emptying itself. It was death to
Carthage and victory for the Barbarians.
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: To sing heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.
VI.
Scarce had the sun dried up the dewy morn,
And scarce the herd gone to the hedge for shade,
When Cytherea, all in love forlorn,
A longing tarriance for Adonis made
Under an osier growing by a brook,
A brook where Adon used to cool his spleen:
Hot was the day; she hotter that did look
For his approach, that often there had been.
Anon he comes, and throws his mantle by,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: de Listomere, without any predetermined idea of pleasing her. As they
followed the caprices of conversation, which, beginning with the opera
of "Guillaume Tell," had reached the topic of the duties of women, he
looked at the marquise, more than once, in a manner that embarrassed
her; then he left her and did not speak to her again for the rest of
the evening. He danced, played at ecarte, lost some money, and went
home to bed. I have the honor to assure you that the affair happened
precisely thus. I add nothing, and I suppress nothing.
The next morning Rastignac woke late and stayed in bed, giving himself
up to one of those matutinal reveries in the course of which a young
man glides like a sylph under many a silken, or cashmere, or cotton
|
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 Market-Place by Harold Frederic: the worn-out old soldier sell boot-laces on the kerb!
That's the spirit of woman-kind. And my daughter
Edith--does she care what becomes of me? Listen to me--I
secured for her the very greatest marriage in England.
She would have been Duchess of Glastonbury today
if her husband had not played the fool and drowned himself."
"What's that you say?" put in Thorpe, swiftly.
"It was as good as suicide," insisted the General,
with doggedness. His face had become a deeper red.
"They didn't hit it off together, and he left in a huff,
and went yachting with his father, who was his own sailing-
The Market-Place |
