| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: after dark; and I can go with you, and then I am sure you could
never be suspected; and even if you were, I could tell them it
was altogether a mistake.'
'I will not permit that--I will not suffer Miss Hazeltine to go,'
cried Mr Bloomfield.
'Why?' asked Julia.
Mr Bloomfield had not the least desire to tell her why, for it
was simply a craven fear of being drawn himself into the
imbroglio; but with the usual tactics of a man who is ashamed of
himself, he took the high hand. 'God forbid, my dear Miss
Hazeltine, that I should dictate to a lady on the question of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: "Why, how you talk!" says the king. "We
sha'n't rob 'em of nothing at all but jest this money.
The people that BUYS the property is the suff'rers;
because as soon 's it's found out 'at we didn't own
it -- which won't be long after we've slid -- the sale
won't be valid, and it 'll all go back to the estate.
These yer orphans 'll git their house back agin, and
that's enough for THEM; they're young and spry, and
k'n easy earn a livin'. THEY ain't a-goin to suffer.
Why, jest think -- there's thous'n's and thous'n's that
ain't nigh so well off. Bless you, THEY ain't got noth'n'
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: smiled upon me as, touch by touch, I painted her? She has a soul,--the
soul with which I endowed her. She would blush if other eyes than mine
beheld her. Let her be seen?--where is the husband, the lover, so
debased as to lend his wife to dishonor? When you paint a picture for
the court you do not put your whole soul into it; you sell to
courtiers your tricked-out lay-figures. My painting is not a picture;
it is a sentiment, a passion! Born in my atelier, she must remain a
virgin there. She shall not leave it unclothed. Poesy and women give
themselves bare, like truth, to lovers only. Have we the model of
Raphael, the Angelica of Ariosto, the Beatrice of Dante? No, we see
but their semblance. Well, the work which I keep hidden behind bolts
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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 Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: lifting the black veil which had hidden till then the glorious future.
Soul and senses were alike charmed. With what passion my thoughts rose
to her! Again and again I cried, with the repetition of a madman,
"Will she be mine?" During the preceding days the universe had
enlarged to me, but now in a single night I found its centre. On her
my will and my ambition henceforth fastened; I desired to be all in
all to her, that I might heal and fill her lacerated heart.
Beautiful was that night beneath her windows, amid the murmur of
waters rippling through the sluices, broken only by a voice that told
the hours from the clock-tower of Sache. During those hours of
darkness bathed in light, when this sidereal flower illumined my
The Lily of the Valley |
