| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: their wonder scarcely lessened. How could so tender a being have
sustained life in those forests, and escaped the jaguar and the
snake? She must be under some Divine protection: she must be a
daughter of the Sun, one of that mighty Inca race, the news of
whose fearful fall had reached even those lonely wildernesses; who
had, many of them, haunted for years as exiles the eastern slopes
of the Andes, about the Ucalayi and the Maranon; who would, as all
Indians knew, rise again some day to power, when bearded white men
should come across the seas to restore them to their ancient
throne.
So, as the girl grew up among them, she was tended with royal
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: It consisted of the following papers: Three letters, in a female
hand, commencing "My dear brother," and terminating with "Thy
loving sister, Elise;" part of a diploma from a gymnasium, or high
school, certifying that [here the name was cut out] had
successfully passed his examination, and was competent to
teach,--and here again, whether by accident or design, the paper
was torn off; a note, apparently to a jeweller, ordering a certain
gold ring to be delivered to "Otto," and signed " B. V. H.;" a
receipt from the package-post for a box forwarded to Warsaw, to the
address of Count Ladislas Kasincsky; and finally a washing-list, at
the bottom of which was written, in pencil, in a trembling hand:
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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 Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: crimped those naughty beasts so terribly, that they had to run for
their lives, or else be chopped into small pieces and be eaten
afterwards. And, if that is not all, every word, true, then there
is no faith in microscopes, and all is over with the Linnaean
Society.
And there were the water-babies in thousands, more than Tom, or you
either, could count. - All the little children whom the good
fairies take to, because their cruel mothers and fathers will not;
all who are untaught and brought up heathens, and all who come to
grief by ill-usage or ignorance or neglect; all the little children
who are overlaid, or given gin when they are young, or are let 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 La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: Josephine wanted to intercede for the dying man, he said, without
allowing her to utter a word, 'You swore on the Cross that there was
no one there.' "
After this story all the ladies rose from table, and thus the spell
under which Bianchon had held them was broken. But there were some
among them who had almost shivered at the last words.
ADDENDUM
The following personage appears in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Bianchon, Horace
Father Goriot
The Atheist's Mass
La Grande Breteche |
