| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: to the hotel. And so on every day and all the week round. My God,
is that life?' I could not say I thought it was - for him. He
pressed me to tell him where I had been, and where I hoped to go;
and as he listened, I declare the fellow sighed. Might not this
have been a brave African traveller, or gone to the Indies after
Drake? But it is an evil age for the gypsily inclined among men.
He who can sit squarest on a three-legged stool, he it is who has
the wealth and glory.
I wonder if my friend is still driving the omnibus for the Grand
Cerf? Not very likely, I believe; for I think he was on the eve of
mutiny when we passed through, and perhaps our passage determined
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: love to a woman like me. With us, it is at once, or never. Come,
gentlemen, supper!"
And, slipping away from Gaston, Marguerite made him sit on her
right at table, me on her left, then called to Nanine:
"Before you sit down, tell them in the kitchen not to open to
anybody if there is a ring."
This order was given at one o'clock in the morning.
We laughed, drank, and ate freely at this supper. In a short
while mirth had reached its last limit, and the words that seem
funny to a certain class of people, words that degrade the mouth
that utters them, were heard from time to time, amidst the
Camille |
