| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: a grave voice.
"And can I endure that a Francesca should work?" cried he. "One day
you will return to your country and find all you left there." Again
the Italian girl looked at Rodolphe. "And you will then repay me what
you may have condescended to borrow," he added, with an expression
full of delicate feeling.
"Let us drop the subject," said she, with incomparable dignity of
gesture, expression, and attitude. "Make a splendid fortune, be one of
the remarkable men of your country; that is my desire. Fame is a
drawbridge which may serve to cross a deep gulf. Be ambitious if you
must. I believe you have great and powerful talents, but use them
Albert Savarus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: dictator, or some other milder title than king. And they were
well persuaded that Cassius, being a man governed by anger and
passion and carried often, for his interest's sake, beyond the
bounce of justice, endured all these hardships of war and travel
and danger most assuredly to obtain dominion to himself, and not
liberty to the people. And as for the former disturbers of the
peace of Rome, whether a Cinna, a Marius, or a Carbo, it is
manifest that they, having set their country as a stake for him
that should win, did almost own in express terms that they
fought for empire. But even the enemies of Brutus did not, they
tell us, lay this accusation to his charge; nay, many heard
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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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: in defending the passage-way between their two cots against the
attack of three other lads, and Myles held his sheepskin coverlet
rolled up into a ball and balanced in his hand, ready for
launching at the head of one of the others so soon as it should
rise from behind the shelter of a cot. Just then Walter Blunt,
dressed with more than usual care, passed by on his way to the
Earl's house. He stopped for a moment and said, "Mayhaps I will
not be in until late to-night. Thou and Falworth, Gascoyne, may
fetch water to-morrow.
Then he was gone. Myles stood staring after his retreating figure
with eyes open and mouth agape, still holding the ball of
Men of Iron |
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 Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: "When this attack had passed off," said he, "my nephew sank into a
state of extreme terror, a dejection that nothing could overcome. He
thought himself unfit for marriage. I watched him with the care of a
mother for her child, and found him preparing to perform on himself
the operation to which Origen believed he owed his talents. I at once
carried him off to Paris, and placed him under the care of Monsieur
Esquirol. All through our journey Louis sat sunk in almost unbroken
torpor, and did not recognize me. The Paris physicians pronounced him
incurable, and unanimously advised his being left in perfect solitude,
with nothing to break the silence that was needful for his very
improbable recovery, and that he should live always in a cool room
Louis Lambert |
