| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: posterity think fit, they may take a caution and warning from. But I
shall come to this part again.
I come back to my three men. Their story has a moral in every part
of it, and their whole conduct, and that of some whom they joined
with, is a pattern for all poor men to follow, or women either, if ever
such a time comes again; and if there was no other end in recording it,
I think this a very just one, whether my account be exactly according
to fact or no.
Two of them are said to be brothers, the one an old soldier, but now
a biscuit-maker; the other a lame sailor, but now a sailmaker; the third
a joiner. Says John the biscuit-maker one day to Thomas his brother,
A Journal of the Plague Year |
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: and afterwards an advocate. The old miser's opinion of me went up
considerably. He consulted me (gratuitously) on all the ticklish bits
of business which he undertook when he had made quite sure how he
stood, business which would have seemed unsafe to any ordinary
practitioner. This man, over whom no one appeared to have the
slightest influence, listened to my advice with something like
respect. It is true that he always found that it turned out very well.
"At length I became head-clerk in the office where I had worked for
three years and then I left the Rue des Gres for rooms in my
employer's house. I had my board and lodging and a hundred and fifty
francs per month. It was a great day for me!
Gobseck |
