| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: understand the eager curiosity and searching inquiry which animated on
this occasion the Norman countenances of all these rejected visitors,
but more especially to enter into Madame de Dey's secret anxieties, it
is necessary to explain the role she played at Carentan. The critical
position in which she stood at this moment being that of many others
during the Revolution the sympathies and recollections of more than
one reader will help to give color to this narrative.
Madame de Dey, widow of a lieutenant-general, chevalier of the Orders,
had left the court at the time of the emigration. Possessing a good
deal of property in the neighborhood of Carentan, she took refuge in
that town, hoping that the influence of the Terror would be little
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: Name and power, dangerous to touch. But the prophets of old were
masters in this; also the apostles, especially St. Paul, who did
not allow it to trouble them whether the highest or the lowest
priest had said it, or had done it in God's Name or in his own.
They looked on the works and words, and held them up to God's
Commandment, no matter whether big John or little Nick said it,
or whether they had done it in God's Name or in man's. And for
this they had to die, and of such dying there would be much more
to say in our time, for things are much worse now. But Christ and
St. Peter and Paul must cover all this with their holy names, so
that no more infamous cover for infamy has been found on earth
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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 House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: been miserable together. By some good agency,--possibly, by the
unrecognized interposition of the long-buried Alice herself,--the
threatening calamity was averted.
But the worst of all--the hardest stroke of fate for Hepzibah to
endure, and perhaps for Clifford, too was his invincible distaste
for her appearance. Her features, never the most agreeable, and
now harsh with age and grief, and resentment against the world for
his sake; her dress, and especially her turban; the queer and quaint
manners, which had unconsciously grown upon her in solitude,--such
being the poor gentlewoman's outward characteristics, it is no great
marvel, although the mournfullest of pities, that the instinctive
House of Seven Gables |
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 Lady Susan by Jane Austen: you, as that Reginald should be returning to Parklands. I was sitting about
half an hour ago with Sir James in the breakfast parlour, when my brother
called me out of the room. I instantly saw that something was the matter;
his complexion was raised, and he spoke with great emotion; you know his
eager manner, my dear mother, when his mind is interested. "Catherine,"
said he, "I am going home to-day; I am sorry to leave you, but I must go:
it is a great while since I have seen my father and mother. I am going to
send James forward with my hunters immediately; if you have any letter,
therefore, he can take it. I shall not be at home myself till Wednesday or
Thursday, as I shall go through London, where I have business; but before I
leave you," he continued, speaking in a lower tone, and with still greater
Lady Susan |
