| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: Nanon, Madame Grandet, and Eugenie looked at each other in silence.
The hilarity of the master always frightened them when it reached its
climax. The evening was soon over. Pere Grandet chose to go to bed
early, and when he went to bed, everybody else was expected to go too;
like as when Augustus drank, Poland was drunk. On this occasion Nanon,
Charles, and Eugenie were not less tired than the master. As for
Madame Grandet, she slept, ate, drank, and walked according to the
will of her husband. However, during the two hours consecrated to
digestion, the cooper, more facetious than he had ever been in his
life, uttered a number of his own particular apothegms,--a single one
of which will give the measure of his mind. When he had drunk his
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: by its fall amid volcanic rubbish, Captain Nicholl beginning his
leveling operations, President Barbicane writing out his notes,
and Michel Ardan embalming the lunar solitudes with the perfume
of his----"
"Yes! it must be so, it is so!" exclaimed the young midshipman,
worked up to a pitch of enthusiasm by this ideal description of
his superior officer.
"I should like to believe it," replied the lieutenant, who was
quite unmoved. "Unfortunately direct news from the lunar world
is still wanting."
"Beg pardon, lieutenant," said the midshipman, "but cannot
From the Earth to the Moon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: "That Madame Firmiani sees a great deal of the faubourg Saint-Germain,
doesn't she?" This from a person who desires to belong to the class
Distinguished. She gives the "de" to everybody,--to Monsieur Dupin
senior, to Monsieur Lafayette; she flings it right and left and
humiliates many. This woman spends her life in striving to know and do
"the right thing"; but, for her sins, she lives in a the Marais, and
her husband is a lawyer,--a lawyer before the Royal courts, however.
"Madame Firmiani, monsieur? I do not know her." This man belongs to
the species Duke. He recognizes none but the women who have been
presented at court. Pray excuse him, he was one of Napoleon's
creations.
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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 Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: trifler.'
"If a demon had placed the deep pit of hell between Sarrasine and La
Zambinella, he would have crossed it with one stride at that moment.
Like the horses of the immortal gods described by Homer, the
sculptor's love had traversed vast spaces in a twinkling.
" 'If death awaited me on leaving the house, I would go the more
quickly,' he replied.
" '/Poverino!/' cried the stranger, as he disappeared.
"To talk of danger to a man in love is to sell him pleasure.
Sarrasine's valet had never seen his master so painstaking in the
matter of dress. His finest sword, a gift from Bouchardon, the bow-
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