| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: really God, he must certainly have smoked a pipe with old Scratch, as
they say."
"Didn't you hear him say, 'Old Scratch has cut me'?" said Fil-de-
Soie.
"Oh!" cried la Pouraille, "if only he would save my nut, what a time I
would have with my whack of the shiners and the yellow boys I have
stowed."
"Do what he bids you!" said Fil-de Soie.
"You don't say so?" retorted la Pouraille, looking at his pal.
"What a flat you are! You will be booked for the Abbaye!" said le
Biffon. "You have no other door to budge, if you want to keep on your
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: length of time before dinner and after dinner, the heavy traces of
uninterested application to various arts, insisted upon by her mother
for the elevation of her mind. But the artist saw only the tender
little face, a seductive subject for his brush, the body almost as
transparent as porcelain, the delicate white neck, and the
aristocratically slender form. And he prepared beforehand to triumph,
to display the delicacy of his brush, which had hitherto had to deal
only with the harsh features of coarse models, and severe antiques and
copies of classic masters. He already saw in fancy how this delicate
little face would turn out.
"Do you know," said the lady with a positively touching expression of
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
