| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: I am a tiny bit tired of it, too."
He was looking at her in astonishment, and she was bravely meeting his eyes.
"I see hearses and flowers for you," he began, "and a funeral oration; I see
the end of the world, and the stars falling out of the sky, and the heavens
rolling up as a scroll; I see the living and the dead gathered together for
the final judgement, the sheep and the goats, the lambs and the rams and all
the rest of it, the white-robed saints, the sound of golden harps, and the
lost souls howling as they fall into the Pit--all this I see on the day that
you, Lute Story, no longer care to ride a horse. A horse, Lute! a horse!"
"For a while, at least," she pleaded.
"Ridiculous!" he cried. "What's the matter? Aren't you well?--you who are
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: will have been justified. /Quod erat demonstrandum/--if one may be
permitted to apply scholastic formulae to the science of manners.
Upon one of those fine spring mornings, when the leaves, although
unfolded, are not yet green, when the sun begins to gild the roofs,
and the sky is blue, when the population of Paris issues from its
cells to swarm along the boulevards, glides like a serpent of a
thousand coils through the Rue de la Paix towards the Tuileries,
saluting the hymeneal magnificence which the country puts on; on one
of these joyous days, then, a young man as beautiful as the day
itself, dressed with taste, easy of manner--to let out the secret he
was a love-child, the natural son of Lord Dudley and the famous
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: When, on the night of the ball, I presented myself in the rose-
colored moire antique for her inspection, she raised her eyebrows,
but said nothing about it.
"I need not be careful of it, I suppose, aunt?"
"Spill as much wine and ice-cream on it as you like."
In the dressing-room Mrs. Bliss surveyed me.
"I think I like this mass of rose-color," she said. "Your hair
comes out in contrast so brilliantly. Why, you have not a single
ornament on!"
"It is so easy to dress without."
This was all the conversation we had together during the evening,
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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 The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: Jeannie Deans, of whom I have already told you, and who, up to the
present moment hadn't uttered a word, shrugged his shoulders, as he
looked at me and said:--
"Idiot! why did you ask him if he came from Beauvais?"
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Taillefer, Jean-Frederic
The Firm of Nucingen
Father Goriot
The Magic Skin
Taillefer, Victorine
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