| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: hope of some day making her appearance on the greater stage of Paris,
she accepted the vulgar incense of her attendant knights with a view
to seeing Monsieur de la Baudraye's name drawn from the electoral urn;
for she supposed him to be ambitious, after seeing him return thrice
from Paris, each time a step higher on the social ladder. But when she
struck on the man's heart, it was as though she had tapped on marble!
The man who had been Receiver-General and Referendary, who was now
Master of Appeals, Officer of the Legion of Honor, and Royal
Commissioner, was but a mole throwing up its little hills round and
round a vineyard! Then some lamentations were poured into the heart of
the Public Prosecutor, of the Sous-prefet, even of Monsieur Gravier,
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lost Princess of Oz by L. Frank Baum: fly down from the sky and alight upon a branch just before him. The
bird looked and looked at him. First it looked with one bright eye
and then turned its head and looked at him with the other eye. Then,
fluttering its wings a little, it said, "Oho! So you've eaten the
enchanted peach, have you?"
"Was it enchanted?" asked Button-Bright.
"Of course," replied the Bluefinch."Ugu the Shoemaker did that."
"But why? And how was it enchanted? And what will happen to one who
eats it?" questioned the boy.
."Ask Ugu the Shoemaker. He knows," said the bird, preening its
feathers with its bill.
The Lost Princess of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: shore pastures to gather herbs and simples, and would like to have
me keep the house.
"No, I don't want to go nowhere by land," she answered
gayly,--"no, not by land; but I don't know's we shall have a better
day all the rest of the summer to go out to Green Island an' see
mother. I waked up early thinkin' of her. The wind's light
northeast,--'twill take us right straight out, an' this time o'
year it's liable to change round southwest an' fetch us home
pretty, 'long late in the afternoon. Yes, it's goin' to be a good
day."
"Speak to the captain and the Bowden boy, if you see anybody
|
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 Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: prototype; and a Don Quixote, with a bean pole for a lance, and a
pot lid for a shield.
But the broadest merriment was excited by a group of figures
ridiculously dressed in old regimentals, which seemed to have
been purchased at a military rag fair, or pilfered from some
receptacle of the cast-off clothes of both the French and British
armies. Portions of their attire had probably been worn at the
siege of Louisburg, and the coats of most recent cut might have
been rent and tattered by sword, ball, or bayonet, as long ago as
Wolfe's victory. One of these worthies--a tall, lank figure,
brandishing a rusty sword of immense longitude--purported to be
Twice Told Tales |
