| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: without imperfection. But, my dear master, if he consents to lend her
to you, at least you must let us see your picture."
The old man remained standing, motionless, in a state bordering on
stupefaction. "What!" he at last exclaimed, mournfully. "Show my
creature, my spouse?--tear off the veil with which I have chastely
hidden my joy? It would be prostitution! For ten years I have lived
with this woman; she is mine, mine alone! she loves me! Has she not
smiled upon me as, touch by touch, I painted her? She has a soul,--the
soul with which I endowed her. She would blush if other eyes than mine
beheld her. Let her be seen?--where is the husband, the lover, so
debased as to lend his wife to dishonor? When you paint a picture for
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: and at the top by a skylight. There were forty furnished rooms--
furnished as students' rooms are! What does youth demand more than was
here supplied? A bed, a few chairs, a chest of drawers, a looking-
glass, and a table. As soon as the sky is blue the student opens his
window.
But in this street there are no fair neighbors to flirt with. In front
is the Odeon, long since closed, presenting a wall that is beginning
to go black, its tiny gallery windows and its vast expanse of slate
roof. I was not rich enough to have a good room; I was not even rich
enough to have a room to myself. Juste and I shared a double-bedded
room on the fifth floor.
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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 The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: In London one could do
no thinking--
"Here we do nothing else," said Amanda.
"Except dog-fights," said the elder cousin.
"I thought I would just wander and think and sleep in the open air.
Have you ever tried to sleep in the open air?"
"In the summer we all do," said the younger cousin. "Amanda makes
us. We go out on to the little lawn at the back."
"You see Amanda has some friends at Limpsfield. And there they all
go ouda from imminent danger--
"she's always so RECKLESS with those dogs," as though Amanda was not
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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 Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: ever recommenced his labors. Our parting threw him into a mood of the
darkest melancholy.
It was in memory of the disaster that befell Louis' book that, in the
tale which comes first in these /Etudes/, I adopted the title invented
by Lambert for a work of fiction, and gave the name of a woman who was
dear to him to a girl characterized by her self-devotion; but this is
not all I have borrowed from him: his character and occupations were
of great value to me in writing that book, and the subject arose from
some reminiscences of our youthful meditations. This present volume is
intended as a modest monument, a broken column, to commemorate the
life of the man who bequeathed to me all he had to leave--his
Louis Lambert |
