| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: attire being a gown bleached by many washings, with a
short black jacket over it, the effect of the whole
being that of a wedding and funeral guest in one. The
women further back wore white aprons, which, with their
pale faces, were all that could be seen of them in the
gloom, except when at moments they caught a flash from
the flames.
Westward, the wiry boughs of the bare thorn hedge which
formed the boundary of the field rose against the pale
opalescence of the lower sky. Above, Jupiter hung like
a full-blown jonquil, so bright as almost to throw a
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
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 A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: "And that is?" said Roger eagerly, as if roused from a dream.
"That women may continue to wear embroidered net dresses, so that I
may never lack work."
The frankness of this confession interested the young man, who looked
with less hostile eyes on Madame Crochard as she slowly made her way
back to them.
"Well, children, have you had a long talk?" said she, with a half-
laughing, half-indulgent air. "When I think, Monsieur Roger, that the
'little Corporal' has sat where you are sitting," she went on after a
pause. "Poor man! how my husband worshiped him! Ah! Crochard did well
to die, for he could not have borne to think of him where /they/ have
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