| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: any lines! What else in the world ARE our Mamies--the real, the
right ones?"
"I see, I see," our friend repeated, charmed by the responsive
wisdom he had ended by so richly extracting. "Mamie is one of the
real and the right."
"The very thing itself."
"And what it comes to then," Strether went on, "is that poor awful
Chad is simply too good for her."
"Ah too good was what he was after all to be; but it was she
herself, and she herself only, who was to have made him so."
It hung beautifully together, but with still a loose end. "Wouldn't
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: that the king could divine, from the tone in which Cornelius uttered
the words, "As you please, sire," the repugnance that his visits would
henceforth cause to the silversmith, just as the latter recognized a
declaration of war in the "Adieu, my crony," of the king.
Thus Louis XI. and his torconnier parted much in doubt as to the
conduct they ought in future to hold to each other. The monarch
possessed the secret of the Fleming; but on the other hand, the latter
could, by his connections, bring about one of the finest acquisitions
that any king of France had ever made; namely, that of the domains of
the house of Burgundy, which the sovereigns of Europe were then
coveting. The marriage of the celebrated Marguerite depended on 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 Chouans by Honore de Balzac: Thank God! the girl of fifteen is still within me."
The young country-girl shuddered. She alone knew the fiery, impetuous
nature of her mistress. She alone was initiated into the mysteries of
a soul rich with enthusiasm, into the secret emotions of a being who,
up to this time, had seen life pass her like a shadow she could not
grasp, eager as she was to do so. After sowing broadcast with full
hands and harvesting nothing, this woman was still virgin in soul, but
irritated by a multitude of baffled desires. Weary of a struggle
without an adversary, she had reached in her despair to the point of
preferring good to evil, if it came in the form of enjoyment; evil to
good, if it offered her some poetic emotion; misery to mediocrity, as
The Chouans |
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 Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: "What do you suggest? I shan't object to anything reasonable."
"No? Well, I was getting eleven-three a yar- day in my last
place, and all found- especially all."
"'All found''s rather a dangerous phrase."
"Not at all. It only means washing and beer and the English
papers, when you've done with them, and meat on Sundays. A
smile, too, when I'm tired, and a word of thanks after seventy
miles in the rain with a head wind."
"It might cover a multitude of sins, Norval."
Here I saved a dog's life and passed two wagons before their
drivers had had time to inspire the horses with the terror they
The Brother of Daphne |
