| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: part in the construction of the Code called that of Brumaire, year
IV., the judicial work of the National Convention, so-called, and
promulgated by the Directory. Grevin knew its provisions thoroughly,
and was able to apply them in this affair with terrible celerity,
under a theory, now converted into a certainty, of the guilt of Michu
and the Messieurs de Simeuse and d'Hauteserre. No one in these days,
unless it be some antiquated magistrates, will remember this system of
justice, which Napoleon was even then overthrowing by the promulgation
of his own Codes, and by the institution of his magistracy under the
form in which it now rules France.
The Code of Brumaire, year IV., gave to the director of the jury of
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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 Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: the Western country.
The story of that tragic period deserves a higher place in historical
literature than it has thus far been given, and this unquestionably because of
a lack of authentic data regarding the conquering of the wilderness.
Considering how many years the pioneers struggled on the border of this
country, the history of their efforts is meager and obscure.
If the years at the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the
nineteenth century were full of stirring adventure on the part of the
colonists along the Atlantic coast, how crowded must they have been for the
almost forgotten pioneers who daringly invaded the trackless wilds! None there
was to chronicle the fight of these sturdy, travelers toward the setting sun.
The Spirit of the Border |
