| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: clouds. It was a sad, sweet moment. Louis could not believe that his
mother would die soon, but instinctively he felt trouble which he
could not guess. He respected her long musings. If he had been rather
older, he would have read happy memories blended with thoughts of
repentance, the whole story of a woman's life in that sublime face--
the careless childhood, the loveless marriage, a terrible passion,
flowers springing up in storm and struck down by the thunderbolt into
an abyss from which there is no return.
"Darling mother," Louis said at last, "why do you hide your pain from
me?"
"My boy, we ought to hide our troubles from strangers," she said; "we
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Frances Waldeaux by Rebecca Davis: drops on the stretches of sward and filled the far aisles
of trees with a soft gray vapor. The park was deserted
but for an old man who asked Mrs. Waldeaux for the
penny's hire for her chair. As he hobbled away, he
looked back at her curiously.
"She gave him a shilling!" exclaimed Lisa, as he passed
them. "I told you she was not fit to take care of
money."
"But why not wait until to-morrow to talk of business?
She is hurt and unnerved just now, and she--she does not
like you, Lisa."
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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 A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: "Yes," she said, "this dune is a cloister,--a sublime cloister."
We now heard the hurried steps of our guide; he had put on his Sunday
clothes. We addressed a few ordinary words to him; he seemed to think
that our mood had changed, and with that reserve that comes of misery,
he kept silence. Though from time to time we pressed each other's
hands that we might feel the mutual flow of our ideas and impressions,
we walked along for half an hour in silence, either because we were
oppressed by the heat which rose in waves from the burning sands, or
because the difficulty of walking absorbed our attention. Like
children, we held each other's hands; in fact, we could hardly have
made a dozen steps had we walked arm in arm. The path which led 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 Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: formalities, and betray their country. The great lord, and the little
man who apes the great lord, bathes in mud once for all to save
himself a splash or two when he goes afoot through the streets."
" 'Just then the great gates were opened to admit a cabriolet. It was
the same young fellow who had brought the bill to me.
" ' "Sir," I said, as he alighted, "here are two hundred francs, which
I beg you to return to Mme. la Comtesse, and have the goodness to tell
her that I hold the pledge which she deposited with me this morning at
her disposition for a week."
" 'He took the two hundred francs, and an ironical smile stole over
his face; it was as if he had said, "Aha! so she has paid it, has she?
Gobseck |
