| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: "Are you unwell, madame? You denied yourself to visitors."
"I am well, monsieur."
"Perhaps you were going out?"
"Not at all."
"You expected some one?"
"No one."
"If my visit is indiscreet you must blame Monsieur le marquis. I had
already accepted your mysterious denial, when he himself came up, and
introduced me into the sanctuary."
"Monsieur de Listomere is not in my confidence on this point. It is
not always prudent to put a husband in possession of certain secrets."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: meant it to be."
"Excellenza," said the cook, while Andrea was making ready, "you
treated us splendidly last evening. But apart from the wine, which was
excellent, your steward did not put anything on the table that was
worthy to set before a true epicure. You will not deny, I suppose,
that the dish I sent to you on the day when you did me the honor to
sit down at my board, contained the quintessence of all those that
disgraced your magnificent service of plate? And when I awoke this
morning I remembered the promise you once made me of a place as
/chef/. Henceforth I consider myself as a member of your household."
"I thought of the same thing a few days ago," replied Andrea. "I
Gambara |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: But the list grows too long, limited as it is only by its own annual
repetition. We have as yet reached but the first week in June; the
summer and autumn are still to come, the first bringing the lotus
for its crown, and the second the chrysanthemum. And lazily grand
the lotus is, itself the embodiment of the spirit of the drowsy
August air, the very essence of Buddha-like repose. The castle
moats are its special domain, which in this its flowering season it
wrests wholly from their more proper occupant--the water. A dense
growth of leather-like leaves, above which rise in majestic isolation
the solitary flowers, encircles the outer rampart, shutting the
castle in as it might be the palace of the Sleeping Beauty. In the
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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 The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: were not a man of superior intelligence" (the fool bowed), "I should
content myself with merely laying before you the material advantages
of this enterprise, whose psychological aspects it would be a waste of
time to explain to you. Listen! Of all kinds of social wealth, is not
time the most precious? To economize time is, consequently, to become
wealthy. Now, is there anything that consumes so much time as those
anxieties which I call 'pot-boiling'?--a vulgar expression, but it
puts the whole question in a nutshell. For instance, what can eat up
more time than the inability to give proper security to persons from
whom you seek to borrow money when, poor at the moment, you are
nevertheless rich in hope?"
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