| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: and had been assured of Mr. Tilney's being a clergyman,
and of a very respectable family in Gloucestershire.
CHAPTER 4
With more than usual eagerness did Catherine hasten
to the pump-room the next day, secure within herself
of seeing Mr. Tilney there before the morning were over,
and ready to meet him with a smile; but no smile was
demanded--Mr. Tilney did not appear. Every creature in Bath,
except himself, was to be seen in the room at different
periods of the fashionable hours; crowds of people were
every moment passing in and out, up the steps and down;
Northanger Abbey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: and that of the unhappy exile--were all to be influenced by Hortense's
guileless passion, and by the strange outcome of the Baron's luckless
passion for Josepha.
Just as Hulot was going into the opera-house, he was stopped by the
darkened appearance of the building and of the Rue le Peletier, where
there were no gendarmes, no lights, no theatre-servants, no barrier to
regulate the crowd. He looked up at the announcement-board, and beheld
a strip of white paper, on which was printed the solemn notice:
"CLOSED ON ACCOUNT OF ILLNESS."
He rushed off to Josepha's lodgings in the Rue Chauchat; for, like all
the singers, she lived close at hand.
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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 The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: nor repair. Monsieur de Mortsauf made a fatal throw which decided the
game. Instantly he sprang up, flung the table at me and the lamp on
the floor, struck the chimney-piece with his fist and jumped, for I
cannot say he walked, about the room. The torrent of insults,
imprecations, and incoherent words which rushed from his lips would
have made an observer think of the old tales of satanic possession in
the Middle Ages. Imagine my position!
"Go into the garden," said the countess, pressing my hand.
I left the room before the count could notice my disappearance. On the
terrace, where I slowly walked about, I heard his shouts and then his
moans from the bedroom which adjoined the dining-room. Also I heard at
The Lily of the Valley |
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 Dreams by Olive Schreiner: shall beckon him, and he must wait and listen. And this shall be the
strangest: far off across the burning sands where, to other men, there is
only the desert's waste, he shall see a blue sea! On that sea the sun
shines always, and the water is blue as burning amethyst, and the foam is
white on the shore. A great land rises from it, and he shall see upon the
mountain-tops burning gold."
The mother said, "He shall reach it?"
And he smiled curiously.
She said, "It is real?"
And he said, "What IS real?"
And she looked up between his half-closed eyelids, and said, "Touch."
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