| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: to allot shares to them, and to-day the young man very likely has an
income of forty thousand livres, derived in the first instance from
the argentiferous lead-mines."
"If every one was better off, who can have lost?" asked Finot.
"Hear the conclusion," rejoined Bixiou. "The Marquis d'Aiglemont and
Beaudenord (I put them forward as two examples out of many) kept their
allotted shares, enticed by the so-called dividend that fell due a few
months afterwards. They had another three per cent on their capital,
they sang Nucingen's praises, and took his part at a time when
everybody suspected that he was going bankrupt. Godefroid married his
beloved Isaure and took shares in the mines to the value of a hundred
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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 Ursula by Honore de Balzac: not being allowed to go with him to Nemours, told Zelie Levrault, the
post master's wife, that she knew the doctor had fourteen thousand
francs a year on the "grand-livre." Now, after twenty years' exercise
of a profession which his position as head of a hospital, physician to
the Emperor, and member of the Institute, rendered lucrative, these
fourteen thousand francs a year showed only one hundred and sixty
thousand francs laid by. To have saved only eight thousand francs a
year the doctor must have had either many vices or many virtues to
gratify. But neither his housekeeper nor Zelie nor any one else could
discover the reason for such moderate means. Minoret, who when he left
it was much regretted in the quarter of Paris where he had lived, was
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