| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: pieces. Derville had not an attorney's soul. Since Ernest de Restaud
had appeared at the Hotel de Grandlieu, and he had noticed that
Camille felt attracted to the young man, Derville had been as
assiduous in his visits as any dandy of the Chausee-d'Antin newly
admitted to the noble Faubourg. At a ball only a few days before, when
he happened to stand near Camille, and said, indicating the Count:
"It is a pity that yonder youngster has not two or three million
francs, is it not?"
"Is it a pity? I do not think so," the girl answered. "M. de Restaud
has plenty of ability; he is well educated, and the Minister, his
chief, thinks well of him. He will be a remarkable man, I have no
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: person, having now served his turn, may go, along with the ARABIAN
AUTHOR, topsy-turvy into space. But if the reader insists on more
specific information, I am happy to say that a recent revolution
hurled him from the throne of Bohemia, in consequence of his
continued absence and edifying neglect of public business; and that
his Highness now keeps a cigar store in Rupert Street, much
frequented by other foreign refugees. I go there from time to time
to smoke and have a chat, and find him as great a creature as in
the days of his prosperity; he has an Olympian air behind the
counter; and although a sedentary life is beginning to tell upon
his waistcoat, he is probably, take him for all in all, the
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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 The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: Baber, wasn't he the first? And then Humayon, and after him Akbar,
and then Jehangir, and then Shah Jehan. But I've forgotten every
date but Akbar's.'
She smiled her smile of brilliant health and even spirits as she
made the damaging admission, and she was so good to look at, sitting
there simple and wholesome and fresh, peeling her banana with her
well-shaped fingers, that we swallowed the dynasty as it were whole,
and smiled back upon her. John, I may say, was extremely pleased
with Cecily; he said she was a very satisfactory human
accomplishment. One would have thought, positively, the way he
plumed himself over his handsome daughter, that he alone was
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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 Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: smoke came puffing out, and there was a smell of burnt feathers
and sulphur. When the smoke had subsided, Fyodor rubbed his eyes
and saw that he was no longer Fyodor, no longer a shoemaker, but
quite a different man, wearing a waistcoat and a watch-chain, in
a new pair of trousers, and that he was sitting in an armchair at
a big table. Two foot men were handing him dishes, bowing low and
saying:
"Kindly eat, your honor, and may it do you good!"
What wealth! The footmen handed him a big piece of roast mutton
and a dish of cucumbers, and then brought in a frying-pan a roast
goose, and a little afterwards boiled pork with horse-radish
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
