| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: He rose and stood before me to screen my face from observation.
I supposed so, and endeavored to stifle my agitation.
"You are better," he said, presently. "Come go with me and get
some refreshment." And he beckoned to Mrs. Bliss, who was down the
hall with an unwieldy gentleman.
"Will you go to supper now?" she asked.
"We are only waiting for you," Mr. Uxbridge answered, offering
me his arm.
When we emerged into the blaze and glitter of the supper-room I
sought refuge in the shadow of Mrs. Bliss's companion, for it
seemed to me that I had lost my own.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: two Madame George Bruants, and they look like broomsticks.
How I long for the day when the tea-roses open their buds!
Never did I look forward so intensely to anything; and every day I
go the rounds, admiring what the dear little things have achieved
in the twentyfour hours in the way of new leaf or increase of
lovely red shoot.
The hollyhocks and lilies (now flourishing) are still under the south
windows in a narrow border on the top of a grass slope, at the foot
of which I have sown two long borders of sweetpeas facing the rose beds,
so that my roses may have something almost as sweet as themselves to look
at until the autumn, when everything is to make place for more tea-roses.
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: that in the knock which suggested a man transported with rage. Gobseck
reconnoitred him through the grating; then he opened the door, and in
came a man of thirty-five or so, judged harmless apparently in spite
of his anger. The newcomer, who was quite plainly dressed, bore a
strong resemblance to the late Duc de Richelieu. You must often have
met him, he was the Countess' husband, a man with the aristocratic
figure (permit the expression to pass) peculiar to statesmen of your
faubourg.
" 'Sir,' said this person, addressing himself to Gobseck, who had
quite recovered his tranquillity, 'did my wife go out of this house
just now?'
Gobseck |
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 Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: the greatness of the Romans and of Greece who attacked him, yet being
a warlike man who knew how to attract the people and secure the
nobles, he sustained the war against his enemies for many years, and
if in the end he lost the dominion of some cities, nevertheless he
retained the kingdom.
Therefore, do not let our princes accuse fortune for the loss of their
principalities after so many years' possession, but rather their own
sloth, because in quiet times they never thought there could be a
change (it is a common defect in man not to make any provision in the
calm against the tempest), and when afterwards the bad times came they
thought of flight and not of defending themselves, and they hoped that
The Prince |
