| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: mercenary natures who never do a kindness to a friend or a
relation simply because these have a claim upon them, while a
service done to a stranger brings its reward to self-love. Such
natures feel but little affection for those who are nearest to
them; they keep their kindness for remoter circles of
acquaintance, and show most to those who dwell on its utmost
limits. Mme. Vauquer belonged to both these essentially mean,
false, and execrable classes.
"If I had been there at the time," Vautrin would say at the end
of the story, I would have shown her up, and that misfortune
would not have befallen you. I know that kind of phiz!"
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: back and give myself up. I am a dead man, anyhow, to all who might
have cared, but I've got to do one or two things first, and I want
to think things over. One thing you've got a right to know. I
hated Lucas, but it never entered my head to kill him. How it
happened God only knows. I don't."
It was signed "J. C."
Bassett broke the silence that followed the reading.
"I made every effort to find him. I had to work alone, you
understand, and from the west side of the range, not to arouse
suspicion. They were after me, too, you know. His horse, I heard,
worked its way back a few days ago. It's a forsaken country, and
The Breaking Point |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: while Lambourne, who had his eye upon his superior's deportment,
repelled the services of those who offered to assist him, with
yet more discourtesy--"Stand back, Jack peasant, with a murrain
to you, and let these knave footmen do their duty!"
While they gave their nags to the attendants of the household,
and walked into the mansion with an air of superiority which long
practice and consciousness of birth rendered natural to Varney,
and which Lambourne endeavoured to imitate as well as he could,
the poor inhabitants of Woodstock whispered to each other, "Well-
a-day! God save us from all such misproud princoxes! An the
master be like the men, why, the fiend may take all, and yet have
Kenilworth |
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 Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: above him, cried, "There is not one of you Cossack dogs who has dared
to oppose me."
"Here is one," said Mosiy Schilo, and stepped forward. He was a
muscular Cossack, who had often commanded at sea, and undergone many
vicissitudes. The Turks had once seized him and his men at Trebizond,
and borne them captives to the galleys, where they bound them hand and
foot with iron chains, gave them no food for a week at a time, and
made them drink sea-water. The poor prisoners endured and suffered
all, but would not renounce their orthodox faith. Their hetman, Mosiy
Schilo, could not bear it: he trampled the Holy Scriptures under foot,
wound the vile turban about his sinful head, and became the favourite
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
