| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: Has it occurred to you that I might fling myself back on the
'Doctrine'?--which, let me tell you, will destroy the administration
and the monarchy both if you continue to allow the party of
representative government to be recruited from men of talent whom you
ignore. Don't you know that in every nation there are fifty to sixty,
not more, dangerous heads, whose schemes are in proportion to their
ambition? The secret of knowing how to govern is to know those heads
well, and either to chop them off or buy them. I don't know how much
talent I have, but I know that I have ambition; and you are committing
a serious blunder when you set aside a man who wishes you well. The
anointed head dazzles for the time being, but what next?--Why, a war
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: various public institutions. So it fell out that, thanks to the young
attorney's skilful management, Mme. de Grandlieu's income reached the
sum of some sixty thousand francs, to say nothing of the vast sums
returned to her by the law of indemnity. And Derville, a man of high
character, well informed, modest, and pleasant in company, became the
house-friend of the family.
By his conduct of Mme. de Grandlieu's affairs he had fairly earned the
esteem of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and numbered the best families
among his clients; but he did not take advantage of his popularity, as
an ambitious man might have done. The Vicomtesse would have had him
sell his practice and enter the magistracy, in which career
Gobseck |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: held him by the end of it until they reached one of the lower halls of
the chateau of Louis XII., which was evidently the antechamber to the
apartments of some important personage. The provost and his men bade
him sit upon a bench, and the man then bound his feet as he had before
bound his hands. On a sign from Monsieur de Montresor the man left the
room.
"Now listen to me, my friend," said the provost-marshal, toying with
the collar of the Order; for, late as the hour was, he was in full
uniform.
This little circumstance gave the young man several thoughts; he saw
that all was not over; on the contrary, it was evidently neither to
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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 Juana by Honore de Balzac: until one morning, sure of the girl's convalescence, she kissed her,
still asleep, on the forehead and left her without betraying whom she
was. A second time the Marana came to the church where Juana made her
first communion. Simply dressed, concealing herself behind a column,
the exiled mother recognized herself in her daughter such as she once
had been, pure as the snow fresh-fallen on the Alps. A courtesan even
in maternity, the Marana felt in the depths of her soul a jealous
sentiment, stronger for the moment than that of love, and she left the
church, incapable of resisting any longer the desire to kill Dona
Lagounia, as she sat there, with radiant face, too much the mother of
her child. A third and last meeting had taken place between mother and
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