| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pierrette by Honore de Balzac: "How is it that no old country gentleman has married that dear girl,
who is cut out for a lady of the manor?" she said. "They have let her
run to seed, and now she is to be flung at the head of a Rogron!"
She ransacked the whole department but did not succeed in finding any
gentleman willing to marry a girl whose mother had only two thousand
francs a year. The "clique" and the subprefect also looked about them
with the same object, but they were all too late. Madame de Breautey
made terrible charges against the selfishness which degraded France,--
the consequence, she said, of materialism, and of the importance now
given by the laws to money: nobility was no longer of value! nor
beauty either! Such creatures as the Rogrons, the Vinets, could stand
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson: Eastern cities, miles about,
Are with mosque and minaret
Among sandy gardens set,
And the rich goods from near and far
Hang for sale in the bazaar;--
Where the Great Wall round China goes,
And on one side the desert blows,
And with the voice and bell and drum,
Cities on the other hum;--
Where are forests hot as fire,
Wide as England, tall as a spire,
A Child's Garden of Verses |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: torment other people, she became less caustic, more gentle, and
indulgent. This change in her temper enchanted and amazed her family.
Perhaps, at last, her selfishness was being transformed to love. It
was a deep delight to her to look for the arrival of her bashful and
unconfessed adorer. Though they had not uttered a word of passion, she
knew that she was loved, and with what art did she not lead the
stranger to unlock the stores of his information, which proved to be
varied! She perceived that she, too, was being studied, and that made
her endeavor to remedy the defects her education had encouraged. Was
not this her first homage to love, and a bitter reproach to herself?
She desired to please, and she was enchanting; she loved, and she was
|
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 Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: eorum fuga reliquum esse equitatum perterritum.
Quibus rebus cognitis, cum ad has suspiciones certissimae res
accederent, quod per fines Sequanorum Helvetios traduxisset, quod obsides
inter eos dandos curasset, quod ea omnia non modo iniussu suo et civitatis
sed etiam inscientibus ipsis fecisset, quod a magistratu Haeduorum
accusaretur, satis esse causae arbitrabatur quare in eum aut ipse
animadverteret aut civitatem animadvertere iuberet. His omnibus rebus
unum repugnabat, quod Diviciaci fratris summum in populum Romanum studium,
summum in se voluntatem, egregiam fidem, iustitiam, temperantiam
cognoverat; nam ne eius supplicio Diviciaci animum offenderet verebatur.
Itaque prius quam quicquam conaretur, Diviciacum ad se vocari iubet et,
|
