| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: redintegratis viribus, quod plerumque in spe victoriae accidere consuevit,
acrius impugnare coeperunt. Hostes undique circumventi desperatis omnibus
rebus se per munitiones deicere et fuga salutem petere contenderunt. Quos
equitatus apertissimis campis consectatus ex milium L numero, quae ex
Aquitania Cantabrisque convenisse constabat, vix quarta parte relicta,
multa nocte se in castra recepit.
Hac audita pugna maxima pars Aquitaniae sese Crasso dedidit obsidesque
ultro misit; quo in numero fuerunt Tarbelli, Bigerriones, Ptianii,
Vocates, Tarusates, Elusates, Gates, Ausci, Garumni, Sibusates, Cocosates:
paucae ultimae nationes anni tempore confisae, quod hiems suberat, id
facere neglexerunt.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: capitals of the columns, and certain figurines of exquisite delicacy,
it is impossible not to imagine that Michel Columb, that great
sculptor, the Michel-Angelo of Brittany, passed that way for the
pleasure of Queen Anne, whom he afterwards immortalized on the tomb of
her father, the last duke of Brittany.
Whatever La Fontaine may choose to say about the "little galleries"
and the "little ornamentations," nothing can be more grandiose than
the dwelling of the splendid Francois. Thanks to I know not what
indifference, to forgetfulness perhaps, the apartments occupied by
Catherine de' Medici and her son Francois II. present to us to-day the
leading features of that time. The historian can there restore the
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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 Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: "Who can be ill at his place?" asked the doctor.
"No one is ill, sir. I think from what he said that it is some matter
of his own that he wants to ask you about; he is coming back again."
"Very good. This Taboureau," Benassis went on, addressing Genestas,
"is for me a whole philosophical treatise; take a good look at him
when he comes, he is sure to amuse you. He was a laborer, a thrifty,
hard-working man, eating little and getting through a good deal of
work. As soon as the rogue came to have a few crowns of his own, his
intelligence began to develop; he watched the progress which I had
originated in this little district with an eye to his own profit. He
had made quite a fortune in eight year's time, that is to say, a
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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 Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: was a woe to them in particular.
I was not conversant in many particular families where these things
happened, but the outcries of the miserable were heard afar off. As to
those who were with child, we have seen some calculation made; 291
women dead in child-bed in nine weeks, out of one-third part of the
number of whom there usually died in that time but eighty-four of the
same disaster. Let the reader calculate the proportion.
There is no room to doubt but the misery of those that gave suck
was in proportion as great. Our bills of mortality could give but little
light in this, yet some it did. There were several more than usual
starved at nurse, but this was nothing. The misery was where they
A Journal of the Plague Year |
