| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: precious than beauty; you are the beautiful Ideal of art, of
fancy. The step you took, blamable as it would be in an ordinary
young girl, allotted to an every-day destiny, has another aspect
if endowed with the nature which I now attribute to you. Among the
crowd of beings flung by fate into the social life of this planet
to make up a generation there are exceptional souls. If your
letter is the outcome of long poetic reveries on the fate which
conventions bring to women, if, constrained by the impulse of a
lofty and intelligent mind, you have wished to understand the life
of a man to whom you attribute the gift of genius, to the end that
you may create a friendship withdrawn from the ordinary relations
Modeste Mignon |
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 Young Forester by Zane Grey: blasted spruces, over and around strips of weathered stone. Once I saw a
cold, white snow-peak. It was hard enough for me to carry my rifle and keep
up with the hunter without talking. Besides, Hiram had answered me rather
shortly, and I thought it best to keep silent. From time to time he stopped
to listen. Then when he turned to go down the slope be trod carefully, and
cautioned me not to loosen stones, and he went slower and yet slower. From
this I made sure we were not far from the springhole.
"Thar's the canyon," he whispered, stopping to point below, where a black,
irregular line marked the gorge. "I haven't heerd a thing, an' we're close.
Mebbe they're asleep. Mebbe most of them are trallin' you, an' I hope so.
Now, don't you put your hand or foot on anythin' thet'll make a noise."
The Young Forester |
