| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: immediate wants of their existence, and though, profiting by acquired
experience, they had nothing to invent, still they had everything to make;
their iron and their steel were as yet only in the state of minerals, their
earthenware in the state of clay, their linen and their clothes in the
state of textile material.
It must be said, however, that the settlers were men" in the complete
and higher sense of the word. The engineer Harding could not have been
seconded by more intelligent companions, nor with more devotion and zeal.
He had tried them. He knew their abilities.
Gideon Spilett, a talented reporter, having learned everything so as to
be able to speak of everything, would contribute largely with his head and
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: had her only a week."
Jeannette, still in her night-cap, with a short petticoat and her bare
feet in slippers, had slipped on a bodice made with straps over the
arms in true peasant fashion, over which she had crossed a neckerchief
which did not entirely hide her fresh and youthful attractions, which
were at least as appetizing as the ham she carried. Short and plump,
with bare arms mottled red, ending in large, dimpled hands with short
but well-made fingers, she was a picture of health. The face was that
of a true Burgundian,--ruddy, but white about the temples, throat, and
ears; the hair was chestnut; the corners of the eyes turned up towards
the top of the ears; the nostrils were wide, the mouth sensual, and a
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: forgotten!"
"Delightful!" shouted something close by; but no one, except the pewter
soldier, saw that it was a piece of the hog's-leather hangings; it had lost
all its gilding, it looked like a piece of wet clay, but it had an opinion,
and it gave it:
"The gilding decays,
But hog's leather stays!"
This the pewter soldier did not believe.
THE HAPPY FAMILY
Really, the largest green leaf in this country is a dockleaf; if one holds it
before one, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds it over one's head in
Fairy Tales |
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 Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: mind; beginning from Christmas, she accompanied the little girl to her
catechism lesson every day.
CHAPTER III
After she had made a curtsey at the threshold, she would walk up the
aisle between the double lines of chairs, open Madame Aubain's pew,
sit down and look around.
Girls and boys, the former on the right, the latter on the left-hand
side of the church, filled the stalls of the choir; the priest stood
beside the reading-desk; on one stained window of the side-aisle the
Holy Ghost hovered over the Virgin; on another one, Mary knelt before
the Child Jesus, and behind the alter, a wooden group represented
A Simple Soul |
