| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: like a great seigneur who loves a trowel; soon it abandons the trowel
and becomes all military; it arrays itself from head to foot as a
national guard, and drills and smokes; suddenly, it abandons military
manoeuvres and flings away cigars; it is commercial, care-worn, falls
into bankruptcy, sells its furniture on the place de Chatelet, files
its schedule; but a few days later, lo! it has arranged its affairs
and is giving fetes and dances. One day it eats barley-sugar by the
mouthful, by the handful; yesterday it bought "papier Weymen"; to-day
the monster's teeth ache, and it applies to its walls an
alexipharmatic to mitigate their dampness; to-morrow it will lay in a
provision of pectoral paste. It has its manias for the month, for the
Ferragus |
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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: giving it up, and leading her down again to follow the road. But I
took the thing as a wager, and fought it through. I was surprised,
as I went on my way again, by what appeared to be chill rain-drops
falling on my hand, and more than once looked up in wonder at the
cloudless sky. But it was only sweat which came dropping from my
brow.
Over the summit of the Goulet there was no marked road - only
upright stones posted from space to space to guide the drovers.
The turf underfoot was springy and well scented. I had no company
but a lark or two, and met but one bullock-cart between Lestampes
and Bleymard. In front of me I saw a shallow valley, and beyond
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