The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: sadly and gently. "Tell me, I implore you for Christ's sake, why are
you praying at the foot of this cross? Why are you here, and not with
her? Why are the children kneeling here this chilly morning? Tell me
all, that I may do no harm through ignorance."
"For the last few days Madame le comtesse has been unwilling to see
her children except at stated times.--Monsieur," he continued after a
pause, "perhaps you had better wait a few hours before seeing Madame
de Mortsauf; she is greatly changed. It is necessary to prepare her
for this interview, or it might cause an increase in her sufferings--
death would be a blessed release from them."
I wrung the hand of the good man, whose look and voice soothed the
The Lily of the Valley |
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 Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: Yet a little farther and they came forth before the ruins of the
house.
It had been a pleasant mansion and a strong. A dry ditch was dug
deep about it; but it was now choked with masonry, and bridged by a
fallen rafter. The two farther walls still stood, the sun shining
through their empty windows; but the remainder of the building had
collapsed, and now lay in a great cairn of ruin, grimed with fire.
Already in the interior a few plants were springing green among the
chinks.
"Now I bethink me," whispered Dick, "this must be Grimstone. It
was a hold of one Simon Malmesbury; Sir Daniel was his bane! 'Twas
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