| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: least, till I have my breakfast."
"The most miserable person I saw," said Kate, "was Mrs.
Meredith. It was very amusing to hear her and Hope talk at
cross-purposes. You know her daughter Helen is in Paris, and
the mother seemed very sad about her. A lady was asking if
something or other were true; 'Too true,' said Mrs. Meredith;
'with every opportunity she has had no real success. It was not
the poor child's fault. She was properly presented; but as yet
she has had no success at all.'
"Hope looked up, full of sympathy. She thought Helen must be
some disappointed school-teacher, and felt an interest in her
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: that she could not hope to snatch him from the eternal fires of Hell.
Thus Granville was a mark for the mean ideas, the vacuous arguments,
the narrow views by which his wife--fancying she had achieved the
first victory--tried to gain a second by bringing him back within the
pale of the Church.
This was the last straw. What can be more intolerable than the blind
struggle in which the obstinacy of a bigot tries to meet the acumen of
a lawyer? What more terrible to endure than the acrimonious pin-pricks
to which a passionate soul prefers a dagger-thrust? Granville
neglected his home. Everything there was unendurable. His children,
broken by their mother's frigid despotism, dared not go with him to
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: wizard, Proteus, they take different forms and deceive us by their
enchantments: and let us, like Menelaus, refuse to let them go until they
show themselves to us in earnest. When they begin to be in earnest their
full beauty will appear: let us then beg and entreat and beseech them to
shine forth. And I think that I had better once more exhibit the form in
which I pray to behold them; it might be a guide to them. I will go on
therefore where I left off, as well as I can, in the hope that I may touch
their hearts and move them to pity, and that when they see me deeply
serious and interested, they also may be serious. You, Cleinias, I said,
shall remind me at what point we left off. Did we not agree that
philosophy should be studied? and was not that our conclusion?
|
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 Camille by Alexandre Dumas: kept, these opened without resistance, but the jewel cases had
disappeared, along with their contents no doubt.
A sharp fear penetrated my heart. I might indeed ask Marguerite
for the truth in regard to these disappearances, but it was
certain that she would not confess it.
"My good Marguerite," I said to her, "I am going to ask your
permission to go to Paris. They do not know my address, and I
expect there are letters from my father waiting for me. I have no
doubt he is concerned; I ought to answer him."
"Go, my friend," she said; "but be back early." I went straight
to Prudence.
Camille |
