| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: before she quits my house, and she may whimper, and the Vernons may storm,
I regard them not. I am tired of submitting my will to the caprices of
others; of resigning my own judgment in deference to those to whom I owe no
duty, and for whom I feel no respect. I have given up too much, have been
too easily worked on, but Frederica shall now feel the difference. Adieu,
dearest of friends ; may the next gouty attack be more favourable! and may
you always regard me as unalterably yours,
S. VERNON
XL
LADY DE COURCY TO MRS. VERNON
My dear Catherine,--I have charming news for you, and if I had not sent
Lady Susan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: jolting of the carriage--and so he slept.
He awoke with the sun shining into his eyes, and the sound of voices
in his ears. The carriage had come to a standstill. Looking about him,
he knew that he was at Mansle, the little town where he had waited for
Mme. de Bargeton eighteen months before, when his heart was full of
hope and love and joy. A group of post-boys eyed him curiously and
suspiciously, covered with dust as he was, wedged in among the
luggage. Lucien jumped down, but before he could speak two travelers
stepped out of the caleche, and the words died away on his lips; for
there stood the new Prefect of the Charente, Sixte du Chatelet, and
his wife, Louise de Negrepelisse.
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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 Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: go into my garden, but then neither are we ever out of it.
The gardener has been here a year and has given me notice
regularly on the first of every month, but up to now has
been induced to stay on. On the first of this month he came
as usual, and with determination written on every feature told
me he intended to go in June, and that nothing should alter
his decision. I don't think he knows much about gardening,
but he can at least dig and water, and some of the things
he sows come up, and some of the plants he plants grow,
besides which he is the most unflaggingly industrious person
I ever saw, and has the great merit of never appearing
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
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 The American by Henry James: One day he would sit hanging his head and looking as if he were firmly
resolved never to smile again; another he would indulge in laughter
that was almost unseemly and make jokes that were bad even for him.
If he was trying to carry off his sorrow, he at such times really
went too far. She begged him of all things not to be "strange."
Feeling in a measure responsible as she did for the affair which had turned
out so ill for him, she could endure anything but his strangeness.
He might be melancholy if he would, or he might be stoical;
he might be cross and cantankerous with her and ask her why she had
ever dared to meddle with his destiny: to this she would submit;
for this she would make allowances. Only, for Heaven's sake,
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