| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: live again in the grasshoppers; and this is the return which the Muses make
to them--they neither hunger, nor thirst, but from the hour of their birth
are always singing, and never eating or drinking; and when they die they go
and inform the Muses in heaven who honours them on earth. They win the
love of Terpsichore for the dancers by their report of them; of Erato for
the lovers, and of the other Muses for those who do them honour, according
to the several ways of honouring them;--of Calliope the eldest Muse and of
Urania who is next to her, for the philosophers, of whose music the
grasshoppers make report to them; for these are the Muses who are chiefly
concerned with heaven and thought, divine as well as human, and they have
the sweetest utterance. For many reasons, then, we ought always to talk
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: brother every day, or nearly every day?"
His wife had fainted at his feet.
"Dead," he said. "And suppose I am mistaken?"
He sprang to the bell-rope; called Josephine, and lifted Clemence to
the bed.
"I shall die of this," said Madame Jules, recovering consciousness.
"Josephine," cried Monsieur Desmarets. "Send for Monsieur Desplein;
send also to my brother and ask him to come here immediately."
"Why your brother?" asked Clemence.
But Jules had already left the room.
CHAPTER IV
Ferragus |
