| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: some song, one of those cheery street-songs that the boys
whistle. It was a low, weak voice, but very pleasant. Margret
heard it through the dark: she kissed the dog with a strange
paleness on her face, and stood up, quiet, attentive as before.
Tiger still kept licking her hand, as it hung by her side: it was
cold, and trembled as he touched it. She waited a moment, then
pushed him from her, as if his touch, even, caused her to break
some vow. He whined, but she hurried away, not waiting to know
how he came, or with whom. Perhaps, if Dr. Knowles had seen her
face as she looked back at him, he would have thought there were
depths in her nature which his probing eyes had never reached.
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: up for a competitive examination. However, as I asked you before,
which of these young ladies is it that you have selected?"
Gordon Wright stopped abruptly, eying his friend.
"Which should you say?"
"Ah, that 's not a fair question," Bernard urged. "It would be invidious for
me to name one rather than the other, and if I were to mention the wrong one,
I should feel as if I had been guilty of a rudeness towards the other.
Don't you see?"
Gordon saw, perhaps, but he held to his idea of making his companion
commit himself.
"Never mind the rudeness. I will do the same by you some day, to make it up.
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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 Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: that name, and had for painter-in-ordinary Master Pittrino.
CHAPTER 6
The Unknown.
Thus founded and recommended by its sign, the hostelry of
Master Cropole held its way steadily on towards a solid
prosperity.
It was not an immense fortune that Cropole had in
perspective; but he might hope to double the thousand louis
d'or left by his father, to make another thousand louis by
the sale of his house and stock, and at length to live
happily like a retired citizen.
Ten Years Later |
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: beams, bent beneath the weight of the upper stories, though it had
never given way under them. Built /en colombage/, that is to say, with
a wooden frontage, the whole facade was covered with slates, so put on
as to form geometrical figures,--thus preserving a naive image of the
burgher habitations of the olden time.
None of the windows, cased in wood and formerly adorned with carvings,
now destroyed by the action of the weather, had continued plumb; some
bobbed forward, others tipped backward, while a few seemed disposed to
fall apart; all had a compost of earth, brought from heaven knows
where, in the nooks and crannies hollowed by the rain, in which the
spring-tide brought forth fragile flowers, timid creeping plants, and
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