| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: as the night when the camellias told their story and he knew his
offering was accepted. These words, in their humility, were clearly
something quite different from the usual flowery rhetoric of lovers,
and a wave of feeling broke over me; it was the breath of happiness.
The weather has been atrocious; impossible to go to the Bois without
exciting all sorts of suspicions. Even my mother, who often goes out,
regardless of rain, remains at home, and alone.
Wednesday evening.
I have just seen /him/ at the Opera, my dear; he is another man. He
came to our box, introduced by the Sardinian ambassador.
Having read in my eyes that this audacity was taken in good part, he
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: And of my beauties made thee lord and chief,
And to my suitors old what I denayed,
That gave I thee, my lover new, unprayed.
XLVI
"But reckon that among, my faults, and let
Those many wrongs provoke thee so to wrath,
That hence thou run, and that at naught thou set
This pleasant house, so many joys which hath;
Go, travel, pass the seas, fight, conquest get,
Destroy our faith, what shall I say, our faith?
Ah no! no longer ours; before thy shrine
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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 A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: him again." She heard him cry out when he felt her lips upon his
forehead, "Many a poor wretch does not know what love is!"
"Are you ill?" said her husband, coming into her room to take her to
breakfast.
"I am dreadfully worried about a matter that is happening at my
sister's," she replied, without actually telling a lie.
"Your sister has fallen into bad hands," replied Felix. "It is a shame
for any family to have a du Tillet in it,--a man without honor of any
kind. If disaster happened to her she would get no pity from him."
"What woman wants pity?" said the countess, with a convulsive motion.
"A man's sternness is to us our only pardon."
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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 Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: "I just sized you up for that as soon as I put eyes on you. You ain't graftin'
for a paper, are you?"
"I never met but one editor in my life," she replied evasively, "and I,
he--well, we didn't get on very well together."
"Hittin' 'm for a job?"
Edna nodded carelessly, though inwardly anxious and cudgelling her brains for
something to turn the conversation.
"What'd he say?"
"That eighteen other girls had already been there that week."
"Gave you the icy mit, eh?" The moon-faced young man laughed and slapped his
thighs. "You see, we're kind of suspicious. The Sunday papers 'd like to get
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