| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: reverend fathers, and escaped ecclesiastical censure in spite of
its wanton dangerous grace. The bolero in itself would be enough
to attract old age while there is any lingering heat of youth in
the veins, and out of charity I warn these persons to keep the
lenses of their opera-glasses well polished.
While Lucien was writing a column which was to set a new fashion in
journalism and reveal a fresh and original gift, Lousteau indited an
article of the kind described as moeurs--a sketch of contemporary
manners, entitled The Elderly Beau.
"The buck of the Empire," he wrote, "is invariably long, slender, and
well preserved. He wears a corset and the Cross of the Legion 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 Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: communicated to London from the Netherlands "by way of
contagion." It first made its appearance in the parishes of St.
Giles and St. Martin's, Westminster, from which directions it
gradually spread to Holborn, Fleet Street, the Strand, and the
city, finally reaching to the east, bringing death invariably in
its train.
The distemper was not only fatal in its termination, but
loathsome in its progress; for the blood of those affected being
poisoned by atmospheric contagion, bred venom in the body, which
burst forth into nauseous sores and uncleanness; or otherwise
preyed with more rapid fatality internally, in some cases causing
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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 At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: nothing like trade. Those who ask what pleasure is to be found in it
are simpletons. To be on the scent of a good bargain, to hold your own
on 'Change, to watch as anxiously as at the gaming-table whether
Etienne and Co. will fail or no, to see a regiment of Guards march
past all dressed in your cloth, to trip your neighbor up--honestly of
course!--to make the goods cheaper than others can; then to carry out
an undertaking which you have planned, which begins, grows, totters,
and succeeds! to know the workings of every house of business as well
as a minister of police, so as never to make a mistake; to hold up
your head in the midst of wrecks, to have friends by correspondence in
every manufacturing town; is not that a perpetual game, Joseph? That
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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 Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: landowners, the wire-pullers of the elections, tried to shake off the
electoral yoke of a creed which had reduced it to a rotten borough.
This little conspiracy, plotted by a handful of men whose vanity was
provoked, failed through the jealousy which the elevation of one of
them, as the inevitable result, roused in the breasts of the others.
This result showed the radical defect of the scheme, and the remedy
then suggested was to rally round a champion at the next election, in
the person of one of the two men who so gloriously represented
Sancerre in Paris circles.
This idea was extraordinarily advanced for the provinces, for since
1830 the nomination of parochial dignitaries has increased so greatly
The Muse of the Department |
