| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: "Madame," he said, "can you still believe in an offence I have not
committed? I earnestly hope that chance may not enable you to discover
the name of the person who ought to have read that letter."
"What! can it be STILL Madame de Nucingen?" cried Madame de Listomere,
more eager to penetrate that secret than to revenge herself for the
impertinence of the young man's speeches.
Eugene colored. A man must be more than twenty-five years of age not
to blush at being taxed with a fidelity that women laugh at--in order,
perhaps, not to show that they envy it. However, he replied with
tolerable self-possession:--
"Why not, madame?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: three wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles' eggs, and caught
fish and birds: in a word, anything but labour; and they fared
accordingly. The diligent lived well and comfortably, and the
slothful hard and beggarly; and so, I believe, generally speaking,
it is all over the world.
But I now come to a scene different from all that had happened
before, either to them or to me; and the origin of the story was
this: Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of
Indians or savages, call them which you please, and there is no
room to doubt they came upon the old errand of feeding upon their
slaves; but that part was now so familiar to the Spaniards, and to
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Burning Daylight by Jack London: effect on him was to increase his fright. As a result he refused
most invitations to houses where women might be met, and
frequented bachelor boards and the Moosehorn Saloon, which had no
dance-hall attached.
CHAPTER XIII
Six thousand spent the winter of 1897 in Dawson, work on the
creeks went on apace, while beyond the passes it was reported
that one hundred thousand more were waiting for the spring. Late
one brief afternoon, Daylight, on the benches between French Hill
and Skookum Hill, caught a wider vision of things. Beneath him
lay the richest part of Eldorado Creek, while up and down Bonanza
|
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 Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: it be that the king said?" said another. "This must be a new
favorite," said a third.
He had come into the palace Beppo the Foolish; he went forth
Beppo the Great Man, and all because of a few words the king had
whispered in his ear.
Three days passed, and then Beppo went again to the Goldsmith's
with the ring and a letter from the princess. This time Sebastian
the Goldsmith fitted him with a suit of splendid plum-colored
silk and gave him a dappled horse, and again Beppo and his two
attendants rode away to the palace. And this time every one knew
him, and as he went up the steps into the palace all present
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