The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: I could scarce articulate--"Flora SAW!"
Mrs. Grose took it as she might have taken a blow in the stomach.
"She has told you?" she panted.
"Not a word--that's the horror. She kept it to herself!
The child of eight, THAT child!" Unutterable still,
for me, was the stupefaction of it.
Mrs. Grose, of course, could only gape the wider.
"Then how do you know?"
"I was there--I saw with my eyes: saw that she was perfectly aware."
"Do you mean aware of HIM?"
"No--of HER." I was conscious as I spoke that I looked
|
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 Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: possessed about two thousand francs a year, had already asked, on
behalf of his son, to whom he proposed to give up his hat-making
establishment, the hand of a girl so well known in the neighborhood
for her exemplary conduct and Christian principles. Sauviat had
politely refused, without saying anything to Veronique. The day after
the vicar--a very important personage in the eyes of the Sauviat
household--had mentioned the necessary of marrying Veronique, whose
confessor he was, the old man shaved and dressed himself as for a
fete-day, and went out without saying a word to his wife or daughter;
both knew very well, however, that the father was in search of a son-
in-law. Old Sauviat went to Monsieur Graslin.
|