| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: escape for you. You belong to a vendita, of the Carbonari. You are
plotting against the Government."
"You did not tell me that," cried the Piedmontese, turning to Leon.
"So you do not know that the Minister decided this morning to put down
your Society?" the cashier continued. "The Procureur-General has a
list of your names. You have been betrayed. They are busy drawing up
the indictment at this moment."
"Then was it you who betrayed him?" cried Aquilina, and with a hoarse
sound in her throat like the growl of a tigress she rose to her feet;
she seemed as if she would tear Castanier in pieces.
"You know me too well to believe it," Castanier retorted. Aquilina was
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: concluded between myself, Barca, and the ambassadors of the
Mercenaries, it is you whom I choose and shall keep!"
Spendius fell swooning upon the mat. The Barbarians, as though
abandoning him, pressed close together; and there was not a word, not
a complaint.
Their companions, who were waiting for them, not seeing them return,
believed themselves betrayed. The envoys had no doubt given themselves
up to the Suffet.
They waited for two days longer; then on the morning of the third,
their resolution was taken. With ropes, picks, and arrows, arranged
like rungs between strips of canvas, they succeeded in scaling the
Salammbo |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: them. The card-case was in her hand, and the sight of it prompted me to
allude to Hortense Rieppe.
"I find her beauty growing upon me?" I declared.
Mrs. Gregory did not deny the beauty, although she spoke with reserve at
first. "It is to be said that she knows how to write a suitable note,"
the lady also admitted.
She didn't tell me what the note was about, naturally; but I could
imagine with what joy in the exercise of her art Hortense had constructed
that communication which must have accompanied the prompt return of the
card-case.
Then Mrs. Gregory's tongue became downright. "Since you're able to see so
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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 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: superficially but moving underneath with extreme speed.
She let her flowers fall from her basket, scattered and tumbled them on
to the grass and, reluctantly and hesitatingly, but without question or
complaint--had she not the faculty of obedience to perfection?--went
too. Down fields, across valleys, white, flower-strewn--that was
how she would have painted it. The hills were austere. It was rocky;
it was steep. The waves sounded hoarse on the stones beneath. They
went, the three of them together, Mrs Ramsay walking rather fast in
front, as if she expected to meet some one round the corner.
Suddenly the window at which she was looking was whitened by some light
stuff behind it. At last then somebody had come into the drawing-room;
To the Lighthouse |
