| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: sculptor fell, pieced by three daggers.
" 'From Cardinal Cicognara,' said one of the men.
" 'A benefaction worthy of a Christian,' retorted the Frenchman, as he
breathed his last.
"These ominous emissaries told Zambinella of the anxiety of his
patron, who was waiting at the door in a closed carriage in order to
take him away as soon as he was set at liberty."
"But," said Madame de Rochefide, "what connection is there between
this story and the little old man we saw at the Lantys'?"
"Madame, Cardinal Cicognara took possession of Zambinella's statue and
had it reproduced in marble; it is in the Albani Museum to-day. In
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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 Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: Setch was not fond of wasting time in warlike exercises. The young
generation learned these by experience alone, in the very heat of
battles, which were therefore incessant. The Cossacks thought it a
nuisance to fill up the intervals of this instruction with any kind of
drill, except perhaps shooting at a mark, and on rare occasions with
horse-racing and wild-beast hunts on the steppes and in the forests.
All the rest of the time was devoted to revelry--a sign of the wide
diffusion of moral liberty. The whole of the Setch presented an
unusual scene: it was one unbroken revel; a ball noisily begun, which
had no end. Some busied themselves with handicrafts; others kept
little shops and traded; but the majority caroused from morning till
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
