| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: when a burly voice was heard:
"What, eh, what? Is that the way they're going to write my obituary
notice?"
There was a shout, and all heads were turned round, for it was
indeed Bordenave. Huge and fiery-faced, he was standing with his
stiff leg in the doorway, leaning for support on Simonne Cabiroche's
shoulder. Simonne was for the time being his mistress. This little
creature had had a certain amount of education and could play the
piano and talk English. She was a blonde on a tiny, pretty scale
and so delicately formed that she seemed to bend under Bordenave's
rude weight. Yet she was smilingly submissive withal. He postured
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: He is a man who is useful to her, nothing more. She has closed
her doors to him for two days; he came this morning--she could
not but accept the box and let him accompany her. He saw her
home; he has gone in for a moment, he is not staying, because you
are waiting here. All that, it seems to me, is quite natural.
Besides, you don't mind the duke."
"Yes; but he is an old man, and I am sure that Marguerite is not
his mistress. Then, it is all very well to accept one liaison,
but not two. Such easiness in the matter is very like
calculation, and puts the man who consents to it, even out of
love, very much in the category of those who, in a lower stage of
Camille |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: takes the place of it. So, under the circumstances in which Ginevra
now found herself, the intuition which she owed to a powerful effect
upon her memory, or, possibly, to necessity, that mother of great
things, lent her, for the moment, a supernatural talent. The head of
the young officer was dashed upon the paper in the midst of an awkward
trembling which she mistook for fear, and in which a physiologist
would have recognized the fire of inspiration. From time to time she
glanced furtively at her companions, in order to hide the sketch if
any of them came near her. But in spite of her watchfulness, there was
a moment when she did not see the eyeglass of the pitiless Amelie
turned full upon the drawing from the shelter of a great portfolio.
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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 A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: kind."
"If you decline to do what I ask, at least return home without seeing
her; your sister will get very little pleasure out of the meeting
when she hears your news."
"What are these strange relations between you?" demanded Digrung,
eying him with suddenly aroused suspicion.
Maskull stared back in a sort of bewilderment. "Good God! You don't
doubt your own sister. That pure angel!"
Tydomin caught hold of him delicately. "I don't know Joiwind, but,
whoever she is and whatever she's like, I know this - she's more
fortunate in her friend than in her brother. Now, if you really
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