| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: frozen, and his open mouth under his clipped moustache was full
of snow. But Nikita though chilled through was still alive.
When he had been brought to, he felt sure that he was already
dead and that what was taking place with him was no longer
happening in this world but in the next. When he heard the
peasants shouting as they dug him out and rolled the frozen
body of Vasili Andreevich from off him, he was at first
surprised that in the other world peasants should be shouting
in the same old way and had the same kind of body, and then
when he realized that he was still in this world he was sorry
rather than glad, especially when he found that the toes on
Master and Man |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: beautiful duchess who is all my joy."
"You are right, you are right!" cried Ernest. However, the young
secretary read and re-read Modeste's letter, striving to guess the
mind of its hidden writer.
"There is not the least fine-writing here," he said, "she does not
even talk of your genius; she speaks to your heart. In your place I
should feel tempted by this fragrance of modesty,--this proposed
agreement--"
"Then, sign it!" cried Canalis, laughing; "answer the letter and go to
the end of the adventure yourself. You shall tell me the results three
months hence--if the affair lasts so long."
Modeste Mignon |
