| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: family interest in ascertaining whether a young lady of a good and
wealthy house, whom he wishes to marry, has ever gone wrong."
"How much will monsieur give for the information," she asked, looking
at Gazonal, who was no longer surprised by anything.
"One hundred francs," he said.
"No, thank you!" she said with a grimace of refusal worthy of a macaw.
"Then say how much you want, my little Madame Nourrisson," cried
Bixiou catching her round the waist.
"In the first place, my dear gentlemen, I have never, since I've been
in the business, found man or woman to haggle over happiness.
Besides," she said, letting a cold smile flicker on her lips, and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: treating the rest, he had wrote--Bravo!
--Though not very offensively,--for it is at two inches, at least, and a
half's distance from, and below the concluding line of the sermon, at the
very extremity of the page, and in that right hand corner of it, which, you
know, is generally covered with your thumb; and, to do it justice, it is
wrote besides with a crow's quill so faintly in a small Italian hand, as
scarce to solicit the eye towards the place, whether your thumb is there or
not,--so that from the manner of it, it stands half excused; and being
wrote moreover with very pale ink, diluted almost to nothing,--'tis more
like a ritratto of the shadow of vanity, than of Vanity herself--of the
two; resembling rather a faint thought of transient applause, secretly
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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 Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: and hope of the Angels misjudged and persecuted here below. Christ
himself has said, 'Blessed are those who mourn! Blessed are the
simple-hearted! Blessed are they that love!'--All Swedenborg is there!
Suffer, Believe, Love. To love truly must we not suffer? must we not
believe? Love begets Strength, Strength bestows Wisdom, thence
Intelligence; for Strength and Wisdom demand Will. To be intelligent,
is not that to Know, to Wish, and to Will,--the three attributes of
the Angelic Spirit? 'If the universe has a meaning,' Monsieur Saint-
Martin said to me when I met him during a journey which he made in
Sweden, 'surely this is the one most worthy of God.'
"But, Monsieur," continued the pastor after a thoughtful pause, "of
Seraphita |
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 Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: "Come," I said, with decision, "we will go back; your health
is precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are
happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no
matter. We will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be
responsible. Besides, there is Luchesi--"
"Enough," he said; "the cough is a mere nothing; it will not
kill me. I shall not die of a cough."
"True--true," I replied; "and, indeed, I had no intention of
alarming you unnecessarily--but you should use all proper caution.
A draught of this Medoc will defend us from the damps."
Here I knocked off the neck of a bottle which I drew from a
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