| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: little clique of superior persons came in to make a visit, the
conversation immediately changed, and the habitues of the house talked
commonplace.
The hotel Graslin thus became an oasis where intelligent minds found
relaxation and relief from the dulness of provincial life; where
persons connected with the government could express themselves freely
on politics without fear of having their words taken down and
repeated; where all could satirize that which provoked satire, and
where each individual abandoned his professional trammels and yielded
himself up to his natural self.
So, after being the most obscure young girl in all Limoges, considered
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: angel on whose faith he had risked more than his life, the honor of
his house, was very roughly handled.
"So," said she, "we have come to this after eighteen months of
tenderness! You are unkind, very unkind. Go away!--I do not want to
see you again. I thought that you loved me. You do not."
"I DO NOT LOVE YOU?" repeated he, thunderstruck by the reproach.
"No, monsieur."
"And yet----" he cried. "Ah! if you but knew what I have just done for
your sake!"
"And how have you done so much for me, monsieur? As if a man ought not
to do anything for a woman that has done so much for him."
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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 Gambara by Honore de Balzac: to know of a better eating-house, an aunt of mine, who lives a few
steps off, is very fond of foreigners."
Andrea raised his cloak as high as his moustache, and fled from the
street, spurred by the disgust he felt at this foul person, whose
clothes and manner were in harmony with the squalid house into which
the fair unknown had vanished. He returned with rapture to the
thousand luxuries of his own rooms, and spent the evening at the
Marquise d'Espard's to cleanse himself, if possible, of the smirch
left by the fancy that had driven him so relentlessly during the day.
And yet, when he was in bed, the vision came back to him, but clearer
and brighter than the reality. The girl was walking in front of him;
Gambara |
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 The Tanach: Zechariah 1: 20 (2:3) And the LORD showed me four craftsmen.
Zechariah 1: 21 (2:4) Then said I: 'What come these to do?' And he spoke, saying: 'These--the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head--these then are come to frighten them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.'
Zechariah 2: 1 (2:5) And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.
Zechariah 2: 2 (2:6) Then said I: 'Whither goest thou?' And he said unto me: 'To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.'
Zechariah 2: 3 (2:7) And, behold, the angel that spoke with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him,
Zechariah 2: 4 (2:8) and said unto him: 'Run, speak to this young man, saying: 'Jerusalem shall be inhabited without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein.
Zechariah 2: 5 (2:9) For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst of her.
Zechariah 2: 6 (2:10) Ho, ho, flee then from the land of the north, saith the LORD; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD.
Zechariah 2: 7 (2:11) Ho, Zion, escape, thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.'
Zechariah 2: 8 (2:12) For thus saith the LORD of hosts who sent me after glory unto the nations which spoiled you: 'Surely, he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
The Tanach |
