| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: This gave Martin, who by temperament and habit considered only
his own feelings, an incalculable advantage. His was the old
supremacy of the selfish over the self sacrificing, the hard over
the tender, the mental over the emotional. Add to this, the fact
that with all his faults, perhaps largely because of them,
perhaps chiefly because she cooked, washed, ironed, mended, and
baked for him, kept his home and planned so continually for his
pleasure, Martin was dear to Rose, and it is not difficult to
understand how unequal the contest in which she was matched when
her wishes clashed with her husband's. It was predestined that
he, invariably, should win out.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: The Secrets of a Princess
Sarrasine
A Prince of Bohemia
Roguin, Madame
Cesar Birotteau
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
Pierrette
A Second Home
Saint-Hereen, Comtesse Moina de
A Woman of Thirty
The Member for Arcis
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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 New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: See where his gang, like frogs, among the dew
Crouch at their duty, an unquiet crew;
Adjust their staring kilts; and their swift eyes
Turn still to him who sits to supervise.
He in the midst, perched on a fallen tree,
Eyes them at labour; and, guitar on knee,
Now ministers alarm, now scatters joy,
Now twangs a halting chord, now tweaks a boy.
Thorough in all, my resolute vizier
Plays both the despot and the volunteer,
Exacts with fines obedience to my laws,
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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 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: judge, the /procureur-general/ rose. In the name of his office this
public prosecutor, the representative of public vindictiveness, asked
that honor might be restored to the merchant who had never really lost
it,--a solitary instance of such an appeal; for a condemned man can
only be pardoned. Men of honor alone can imagine the emotions of Cesar
Birotteau as he heard Monsieur de Grandville pronounce a speech, of
which the following is an abridgement:--
"Gentlemen," said that celebrated official, "on the 16th of
January, 1820, Birotteau was declared a bankrupt by the commercial
tribunal of the Seine. His failure was not caused by imprudence,
nor by rash speculations, nor by any act that stained his honor.
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
