| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Collection of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: the gate!
PETER got down very
quietly off the wheelbarrow,
and started running
as fast as he could go, along
a straight walk behind some
black-currant bushes.
Mr. McGregor caught sight
of him at the corner, but Peter
did not care. He slipped underneath
the gate, and was safe at
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: coaxin' sort of man, that got what he wanted out o' folks, an' only
gave when he wanted to buy, made friends easy and lost 'em without
knowin' the difference. She'd had a piece o' work tryin' to make
him walk accordin' to her right ideas, but she'd have had
too much variety ever to fall into a melancholy. Some is meant to
be the Joannas in this world, an' 'twas her poor lot."
XV
On Shell-heap Island
SOME TIME AFTER Mrs. Fosdick's visit was over and we had returned
to our former quietness, I was out sailing alone with Captain
Bowden in his large boat. We were taking the crooked northeasterly
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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 Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: reveals society. I saw before me many victims known to you and me,--
Madame de Beauseant, dying, and starting for Normandy only a few days
earlier; the Duchesse de Langeais lost; Lady Brandon hiding herself in
Touraine in the little house where Lady Dudley had stayed two weeks,
and dying there, killed by a frightful catastrophe,--you know it. Our
period teems with such events. Who does not remember that poor young
woman who poisoned herself, overcome by jealousy, which was perhaps
killing Madame de Mortsauf? Who has not shuddered at the fate of that
enchanting young girl who perished after two years of marriage, like a
flower torn by the wind, the victim of her chaste ignorance, the
victim of a villain with whom Ronquerolles, Montriveau, and de Marsay
The Lily of the Valley |
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 A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: the midst of which were flaming portraits drawn in lines of fire) to
notice the naive admiration of one little Eve concealed in a group of
women. Marie's curiosity--like that which would undoubtedly
precipitate all Paris into the Jardin des Plantes to see a unicorn, if
such an animal could be found in those mountains of the moon, still
virgin of the tread of Europeans--intoxicates a secondary mind as much
as it saddens great ones; but Raoul was enchanted by it; although he
was then too anxious to secure all women to care very much for one
alone.
"Take care, my dear," said Marie's kind and gracious companion in her
ear, "and go home."
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