| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: do not doubt success, but live within my heart and I am sure of it."
"I have already reigned," said Seraphita, coldly.
The words fell as the axe of a skilful woodman falls at the root of a
young tree and brings it down at a single blow. Men alone can
comprehend the rage that a woman excites in the soul of a man when,
after showing her his strength, his power, his wisdom, his
superiority, the capricious creature bends her head and says, "All
that is nothing"; when, unmoved, she smiles and says, "Such things are
known to me," as though his power were nought.
"What!" cried Wilfrid, in despair, "can the riches of art, the riches
of worlds, the splendors of a court--"
Seraphita |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: follows and convoys them. Taking leave oś the Greek troops and
of his daughter and Cliges, and finally of the emperor, he stayed
behind in Germany. And the emperor of the Greeks goes off
happily and in joyous mood. Cliges, brave and courteous, calls
to mind his sire's command. If his uncle, the emperor, will give
him his permission, he will go and ask him for leave to return to
Britain and there converse with his great-uncle, the King; for he
is desirous of seeing and knowing him. So he presents himself
before the emperor, and requests that he consent to let him go to
Britain to see his uncle and his friends. Gently he proffered
his request. But his uncle refused, when he had listened to the
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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 The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: weak creature like Lipa could scream like that. And it was
suddenly silent in the yard.
Aksinya walked into the house with her old naive smile. . . . The
deaf man kept moving about the yard with his arms full of linen,
then he began hanging it up again, in silence, without haste. And
until the cook came back from the river no one ventured to go
into the kitchen and see what was there.
VIII
Nikifor was taken to the district hospital, and towards evening
he died there. Lipa did not wait for them to come for her, but
wrapped the dead baby in its little quilt and carried it home.
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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 Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: sudden death of MADAME told all Europe the infamous part which a
Chevalier de Lorraine had debased himself to play.
Calling themselves the heirs of the dispossessed Carolovingians, the
duke and cardinal acted with the utmost insolence towards Catherine
de' Medici, the mother-in-law of their niece. The Duchesse de Guise
spared her no mortification. This duchesse was a d'Este, and Catherine
was a Medici, the daughter of upstart Florentine merchants, whom the
sovereigns of Europe had never yet admitted into their royal
fraternity. Francois I. himself has always considered his son's
marriage with a Medici as a mesalliance, and only consented to it
under the expectation that his second son would never be dauphin.
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