| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: astonishment - indeed, it increases every day - at the hopeless
gulf that there is between England and Scotland, and English and
Scotch. Nothing is the same; and I feel as strange and outlandish
here as I do in France or Germany. Everything by the wayside, in
the houses, or about the people, strikes me with an unexpected
unfamiliarity: I walk among surprises, for just where you think
you have them, something wrong turns up.
I got a little Law read yesterday, and some German this morning,
but on the whole there are too many amusements going for much work;
as for correspondence, I have neither heart nor time for it to-day.
R. L. S.
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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 Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: "It is all very well for you to be glad, but,
indeed, it makes me sad when I think of it.
Bela was a splendid girl. In the end I grew
accustomed to her just as if she had been my
own daughter, and she loved me. I must tell
you that I have no family. I have had no news
of my father and mother for twelve years or so,
and, in my earlier days, I never thought of
providing myself with a wife -- and now, you
know, it wouldn't do. So I was glad to have
found someone to spoil. She used to sing to us
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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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: danger. After this, they had no news whatever, neither from Sir
Philip, nor even from their brother Falconer. The case of Lady
Forester was not indeed different from that of hundreds in the
same situation; but a feeble mind is necessarily an irritable
one, and the suspense which some bear with constitutional
indifference or philosophical resignation, and some with a
disposition to believe and hope the best, was intolerable to Lady
Forester, at once solitary and sensitive, low-spirited, and
devoid of strength of mind, whether natural or acquired.
CHAPTER II.
As she received no further news of Sir Philip, whether directly
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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 Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: beauty now remained, save the marvelous outlines in which its
principal charm had lain.
" 'It is essential, madame, that I should speak to M. le Comte----"
" 'If so, you would be more favored than I am,' she said, interrupting
me. 'M. de Restaud will see no one. He will hardly allow his doctor to
come, and will not be nursed even by me. When people are ill, they
have such strange fancies! They are like children, they do not know
what they want.'
" 'Perhaps, like children, they know very well what they want.'
"The Countess reddened. I almost repented a thrust worthy of Gobseck.
So, by way of changing the conversation, I added, 'But M. de Restaud
Gobseck |
