| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: coming, I hope, in time."
"When the public prosecutor arrives," little Mme. Camusot said, with
some heat, "he must find all over.--Yes, my dear, yes," she added,
looking full at her amazed husband.--"Ah! old hypocrite of a
President, you are setting your wits against us; you shall remember
it! You have a mind to help us to a dish of your own making, you shall
have two served up to you by your humble servant Cecile Amelie
Thirion!--Poor old Blondet! It is lucky for him that the President has
taken this journey to turn us out, for now that great oaf of a Joseph
Blondet will marry Mlle. Blandureau. I will let Father Blondet have
some seeds in return.--As for you, Camusot, go to M. Michu's, while
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: two captives, one of whom the girl immediately recognized as
her protector and the other as an Englishman in the uniform
of an aviator. This, then, was the reason for the two stakes.
Arising quickly she placed a hand upon Zu-tag's shoulder
and pointed down into the village. "Come," she said, as if she
had been talking to one of her own kind, and with the word
she swung lightly to the roof of the hut below. From there to
the ground was but a short drop and a moment later she was
circling the hut upon the side farthest from the fires, keeping
in the dense shadows where there was little likelihood of being
discovered. She turned once to see that Zu-tag was directly
Tarzan the Untamed |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: in the societies of the higher ants.
The giants of modern thought have given some attention to this question;
and the greatest among them has answered it -- partly in the affirmative.
Herbert Spencer has expressed his belief that humanity will arrive at some
state of civilization ethically comparable with that of the ant:--
"If we have, in lower orders of creatures, cases in which the nature is
constitutionally so modified that altruistic activities have become one
with egoistic activities, there is an irresistible implication that a
parallel identification will, under parallel conditions, take place among
human beings. Social insects furnish us with instances completely to the
point,-- and instances showing us, indeed, to what a marvelous degree the
Kwaidan |
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 At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: young girl, who had devoured them in secret, during the long nights of
the past winter.
And so Augustine's expression of vague longing, her gentle voice, her
jasmine skin, and her blue eyes had lighted in poor Lebas' soul a
flame as ardent as it was reverent. From an easily understood caprice,
Augustine felt no affection for the orphan; perhaps she did not know
that he loved her. On the other hand, the senior apprentice, with his
long legs, his chestnut hair, his big hands and powerful frame, had
found a secret admirer in Mademoiselle Virginie, who, in spite of her
dower of fifty thousand crowns, had as yet no suitor. Nothing could be
more natural than these two passions at cross-purposes, born in the
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