| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: monsieur's brother, so I did not open it."
"Father!" cried Cesarine; "a letter from my uncle at Tours!"
"Ah, I am saved!" cried Cesar. "My brother! oh, my brother!" He kissed
the letter, as he broke the seal, and read it aloud to his wife and
daughter in a trembling voice:--
Answer of Francois to Cesar Birotteau.
Tours, 10th.
My beloved Brother,--Your letter gave me the deepest pain. As soon
as I had read it, I went at once and offered to God the holy
sacrifice of the Mass, imploring Him by the blood which His Son,
our divine Redeemer, shed for us, to look with mercy upon your
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: had been one of great scarcity owing to drought, and once that
they had been summoned to a gathering at the king's kraal near
Ulundi. At any rate they were not there, and the few who did
appear stared at us strangely.
Moreover, I noticed that they were not allowed to speak to us.
Also Heda was kept in the cart and Nombe insisted that the rear
canvas curtain should be closed and a blanket fastened behind
Anscombe who drove, evidently with the object that she should not
be seen. Further, on the plea of weariness, from the time that
we entered Zulu territory Nombe asked to be allowed to ride in
the cart with Kaatje and Heda, her real reason, as I was sure,
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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 Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: and moved into a less pretentious one which had belonged to her
ancestors and stood back of the market-place. This house, with its
slate-covered roof, was built between a passage-way and a narrow
street that led to the river. The interior was so unevenly graded that
it caused people to stumble. A narrow hall separated the kitchen from
the parlour, where Madame Aubain sat all day in a straw armchair near
the window. Eight mahogany chairs stood in a row against the white
wainscoting. An old piano, standing beneath a barometer, was covered
with a pyramid of old books and boxes. On either side of the yellow
marble mantelpiece, in Louis XV. style, stood a tapestry armchair. The
clock represented a temple of Vesta; and the whole room smelled musty,
A Simple Soul |
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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: and give an account of what it was made, and in what manner and by what
means it grew as it did; and of the other to foretell to what end and
purpose it was so made, and what it might mean or portend. Those who
say that to find out the cause of a prodigy is in effect to destroy its
supposed signification as such, do not take notice that, at the same
time, together with divine prodigies, they also do away with signs and
signals of human art and concert, as, for instance, the clashings of
quoits, fire-beacons, and the shadows on sun-dials, every one of which
things has its cause, and by that cause and contrivance is a sign of
something else. But these are subjects, perhaps, that would better
befit another place.
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