| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: spends his nights by their pillow, wearing himself to death to spare
them the slightest loss of beauty in any part; he succeeds, he keeps
their secret like the dead; they send to ask for his bill, and think
it horribly exorbitant. Who saved them? Nature. Far from recommending
him, they speak ill of him, fearing lest he should become the
physician of their best friends.
"My dear fellow, those women of whom you say, 'They are angels!' I--
I--have seen stripped of the little grimaces under which they hide
their soul, as well as of the frippery under which they disguise their
defects--without manners and without stays; they are not beautiful.
"We saw a great deal of mud, a great deal of dirt, under the waters of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: not visited the grave of his wife,--as if he feared an emotion he
might not have the power to master. It seemed to Sallenauve that his
friend had come to the end of his strength, and that a mental
prostration of the worst character was succeeding the over-excitement
he had shown at his election. One thing reassured the new deputy, and
enabled him to come to Paris for, at any rate, a few hours. A friend
of Marie-Gaston, an English nobleman with whom he had been intimate in
Florence, came out to see him, and the sad man greeted the new-comer
with apparent joy.
In order to distract Sallenauve's thoughts from this anxiety, Madame
de l'Estorade introduced him to Monsieur Octave de Camps, the latter
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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 Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: business, and election to the club, these little festivals have
become common. He picks up a few fellows in the smoking-room--all
men of Attic wit--myself, for instance, if he has the luck to
find me disengaged; a string of hansoms may be observed (by Her
Majesty) bowling gaily through St James's Park; and in a quarter
of an hour the party surrounds one of the best appointed boards
in London.
But at the time of which we write the house in the King's Road
(let us still continue to call it No. 233) was kept very quiet;
when Michael entertained guests it was at the halls of Nichol or
Verrey that he would convene them, and the door of his private
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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 House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: brother. I am afraid (but you, sir, will know better than I) that
he is not quite in his sound senses; but so mild and quiet he
seems to be, that a mother might trust her baby with him; and
I think he would play with the baby as if he were only a few
years older than itself. He startle me!--Oh, no indeed!"
"I rejoice to hear so favorable and so ingenuous an account of
my cousin Clifford," said the benevolent Judge. "Many years ago,
when we were boys and young men together, I had a great affection
for him, and still feel a tender interest in all his concerns.
You say, Cousin Phoebe, he appears to be weak minded. Heaven
grant him at least enough of intellect to repent of his past sins!"
House of Seven Gables |
