| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: replied Clementine. "Well, if I accept it as a great sacrifice there
can be no ill-will between us."
Paz left the room, fearing he might commit some great folly, and
feeling that wild ideas were getting the better of him. He went to
walk in the open air, lightly dressed in spite of the cold, but
without being able to cool the fire in his cheeks or on his brow.
"I thought you had a noble soul,"--the words still rang in his ears.
"A year ago," he said to himself, "she thought me a hero who could
fight the Russians single-handed!"
He thought of leaving the hotel Laginski, and taking service with the
spahis and getting killed in Africa, but the same great fear checked
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: In these days a judge, paid as a functionary, and generally a poor
man, has in the place of his dignity of old a haughtiness of demeanor
that seems odious to the men raised to be his equals; for haughtiness
is dignity without a solid basis. That is the vicious element in the
present system. If France were divided into ten circuits, the
magistracy might be reinstated by conferring its dignities on men of
fortune; but with six-and-twenty circuits this is impossible.
The only real improvement to be insisted on in the exercise of the
power intrusted to the examining judge, is an alteration in the
conditions of preliminary imprisonment. The mere fact of suspicion
ought to make no difference in the habits of life of the suspected
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: Boulogne coast, the pursuits and the education which were needed
were such as would raise up men to fight him; so the coarse,
fierce, hard-handed training of our grandfathers came when it was
wanted, and did the work which was required of it, else we had not
been here now. Let us be thankful that we have had leisure for
science; and show now in war that our science has at least not
unmanned us.
Moreover, Natural History, if not fifty years ago, certainly a
hundred years ago, was hardly worthy of men of practical common
sense. After, indeed, Linne, by his invention of generic and
specific names, had made classification possible, and by his own
|
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 Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: an over-manicured finger.
The name was scarcely a surprise. I had already surmised that this
might be the woman whom rumor credited as being Bronson's common-law
wife. Rumor, I remembered, had said other things even less pleasant,
things which had been brought out at Bronson's arrest for forgery.
"We met last under less fortunate circumstances," she was saying.
"I have been fit for nothing since that terrible day. And you - you
had a broken arm, I think."
"I still have it," I said, with a lame attempt at jocularity; "but
to have escaped at all was a miracle. We have much, indeed, to be
thankful for."
The Man in Lower Ten |
