| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: Thuillier thanked them effusively for the "honor" they had done him;
after which came another long period of waiting, of which we shall not
relate the tortures. At one o'clock the assembled contingent comprised
five of the invited guests, Barbet and la Peyrade not included. It is
scarcely necessary to say that none of the self-respecting journalists
of the better papers had taken any notice of the absurd invitation.
Breakfast now had to be served to this reduced number. A few polite
phrases that reached Thuillier's ears about the "immense" interest of
his publication, failed to blind him to the bitterness of his
discomfiture; and without the gaiety of the publisher, who had taken
in hand the reins his patron, gloomy as Hippolytus on the road to
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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 The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: assisting Grace to descend. Her surprise at his appearance was so
great that, far from making a calm and independent descent, she
was very nearly lifted down in his arms. He relinquished her when
she touched ground, and hoped she was not frightened.
"Oh no, not much," she managed to say. "There was no danger--
unless he had run under the trees where the boughs are low enough
to hit my head."
"Which was by no means an impossibility, and justifies any amount
of alarm."
He referred to what he thought he saw written in her face, and she
could not tell him that this had little to do with the horse, but
The Woodlanders |
