| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: "Ah ca! do you think I'm a man without any will, any initiative of my
own?"
"No! but I'd like to be hidden in a corner and hear how you will open
the subject with your sister."
"Parbleu! I shall open it frankly. I WILL, very firmly said, shall
meet every one of her objections."
"Ah, my poor fellow!" said la Peyrade, clapping him on the shoulder,
"from Chrysale down how often have we seen brave warriors lowering
their penants before the wills of women accustomed to master them!"
"We'll see about THAT," replied Thuillier, making a theatrical exit.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: way of a scientific bone that has meat on it, eagerly enough; but if
the scientific man comes for a bone or a crust to US, that is
another story. What have we publicly done for science? We are
obliged to know what o'clock it is, for the safety of our ships, and
therefore we pay for an observatory; and we allow ourselves, in the
person of our Parliament, to be annually tormented into doing
something, in a slovenly way, for the British Museum; sullenly
apprehending that to be a place for keeping stuffed birds in, to
amuse our children. If anybody will pay for their own telescope,
and resolve another nebula, we cackle over the discernment as if it
were our own; if one in ten thousand of our hunting squires suddenly
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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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: brilliancy of her black hair and eyes. Her slender and well-defined
outlines reminded an artist of the Venus of the Middle Ages rendered
by Jean Goujon, the illustrious sculptor of Diane de Poitiers.
Des Lupeaulx stopped in the doorway, and leaned against the woodwork.
This ferret of ideas did not deny himself the pleasure of spying upon
sentiment, and this woman interested him more than any of the others
to whom he had attached himself. Des Lupeaulx had reached an age when
men assert pretensions in regard to women. The first white hairs lead
to the latest passions, all the more violent because they are astride
of vanishing powers and dawning weakness. The age of forty is the age
of folly,--an age when man wants to be loved for himself; whereas at
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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 A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: Limbs that are eager and strong to go forth
Into the wilds and the ways of the bold;
Red blood that pulses and throbs in the veins,
Ears that love silences better than noise;
Strength of the forest and health of the plains;
These the rewards that the hunter enjoys.
Forests were ever the cradles of men;
Manhood is born of a kinship with trees.
Whence shall come brave hearts and stout
muscles, when
Woods have made way for our cities of ease?
A Heap O' Livin' |
