| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: has found but a single opportunity of losing his heart? But you
love to deceive us, and we submit to be deceived, poor foolish
creatures that we are; for your hypocrisy is, after all, a homage
paid to the superiority of our sentiments, which are all
purity."
The last words were spoken with a disdainful pride that made the
novice in love feel like a worthless bale flung into the deep,
while the Duchess was an angel soaring back to her particular
heaven.
"Confound it!" thought Armand de Montriveau, "how am I to tell
this wild thing that I love her?"
|
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 Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: His homely face was suffused with a light of
love for the army which was to him all things
beautiful and powerful.
After a time he turned to the youth. "Where
yeh hit, ol' boy?" he asked in a brotherly tone.
The youth felt instant panic at this question,
although at first its full import was not borne in
upon him.
"What?" he asked.
"Where yeh hit?" repeated the tattered man.
"Why," began the youth, "I--I--that is--
The Red Badge of Courage |
