| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: to wake no one in his house but himself. His reward will be beyond
your wishes. Above all, go out without saying a word--or else!' and he
frowned.
"Rosalie was going, and he called her back. 'Here, take my latch-key,'
said he.
" 'Jean!' Monsieur de Merret called in a voice of thunder down the
passage. Jean, who was both coachman and confidential servant, left
his cards and came.
" 'Go to bed, all of you,' said his master, beckoning him to come
close; and the gentleman added in a whisper, 'When they are all asleep
--mind, /asleep/--you understand?--come down and tell me.'
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Many a factory throve there, and many a business also.
Long sat the excellent couple under the doorway, exchanging
Many a passing remark on the people who happen'd to pass them.
Presently thus to her husband exclaim'd the good-natured hostess
"See! Yon comes the minister; with him is walking the druggist:
They'll be able to give an account of all that has happen'd,
What they witness'd, and many a sight I fear which was painful."
Both of them came in a friendly manner, and greeted the couple,
Taking their seats on the wooden benches under the doorway,
Shaking the dust from their feet, their handkerchiefs using to fan them.
Presently, after exchanging reciprocal greetings, the druggist
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: hanged them. Throttled them both with a rope. A watchman, another
one, saw it done, and told me that Lozinsky did not resist, but
Rozovsky struggled for a long time, so that they had to pull him
up on to the scaffold and to force his head into the noose. Yes.
This watchman was a stupid fellow. He said: 'They told me, sir,
that it would be frightful, but it was not at all frightful.
After they were hanged they only shrugged their shoulders twice,
like this.' He showed how the shoulders convulsively rose and
fell. 'Then the hangman pulled a bit so as to tighten the noose,
and it was all up, and they never budged."' And Kryltzoff
repeated the watchman's words, "Not at all frightful," and tried
Resurrection |
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 Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: her off, even if in that recognition he went so far as
to arrogate to himself the right of harming her.
Ah! now she knew what he was dreaming of--that Sunday
morning when he had borne her along through the water
with the other dairymaids, who had loved him nearly as
much as she, if that were possible, which Tess could
hardly admit. Clare did not cross the bridge with her,
but proceeding several paces on the same side towards
the adjoining mill, at length stood still on the brink
of the river.
Its waters, in creeping down these miles of meadowland,
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
