| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: their backs and presenting, below them, a still more convex surface
of resistance to the pressure of the mass, to preserve an interval
between their noses and the glazed mounts of the pictures; while
the central body, in the comparative gloom projected by a wide
horizontal screen hung under the skylight and allowing only a
margin for the day, remained upright dense and vague, lost in the
contemplation of its own ingredients. This contemplation sat
especially in the sad eyes of certain female heads, surmounted with
hats of strange convolution and plumage, which rose on long necks
above the others. One of the heads Paul perceived, was much the so
most beautiful of the collection, and his next discovery was that
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: prefigure the wayward and fantastic progress of a storm-tossed life?
What wind blew on that letter, which, whatever language we find it in,
begins scarcely fifty words? Marcas' name was Zephirin; Saint Zephirin
is highly venerated in Brittany, and Marcas was a Breton.
Study the name once more: Z Marcas! The man's whole life lies in this
fantastic juxtaposition of seven letters; seven! the most significant
of all the cabalistic numbers. And he died at five-and-thirty, so his
life extended over seven lustres.
Marcas! Does it not hint of some precious object that is broken with a
fall, with or without a crash?
I had finished studying the law in Paris in 1836. I lived at that time
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