| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: to Raoul, who took and kissed it as though he were eighteen years old.
The eyes of the countess expressed so noble a tenderness that the
tears which men of nervous temperament can always find at their
service came into Raoul's eyes.
"Where can I see you? where can I speak with you?" he said. "It is
death to be forced to disguise my voice, my look, my heart, my love--"
Moved by that tear Marie promised to drive daily in the Bois, unless
the weather were extremely bad. This promise gave Raoul more pleasure
than he had found in Florine for the last five years.
"I have so many things to say to you! I suffer from the silence to
which we are condemned--"
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Koran: and I will set between you and them a barrier.
'Bring me pigs of iron until they fill up the space between the
two mountain sides.' Said he, 'Blow until it makes it a fire.' Said
he, 'Bring me, that I may pour over it, molten brass.' they could
not scale it, and they could not tunnel it.
Said he, 'This is a mercy from my Lord; but when the promise of my
Lord comes to pass, He will make it as dust, for the promise of my
Lord is true.'
And we left some of them to surge on that day over others, and the
trumpet will be blown, and we will gather them together.
And we will set forth hell on that day before the misbelievers,
The Koran |
