| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: sickly constitution was a flagrant offence to his self-love as a
father. If he execrated handsome men, he also detested weakly ones, in
whom mental capacity took the place of physical strength. To please
him a man should be ugly in face, tall, robust, and ignorant. Etienne,
whose debility would bow him, as it were, to the sedentary occupations
of knowledge, was certain to find in his father a natural enemy. His
struggle with that colossus began therefore from his cradle, and his
sole support against that cruel antagonist was the heart of his mother
whose love increased, by a tender law of nature, as perils threatened
him.
Buried in solitude after the abrupt departure of the count, Jeanne de
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: not to hold him, for I was anxious to see what he would do.
He went straight over to the window and brushed out the crumbs of sugar.
Then he took his fly box, and emptied it outside, and threw away the box.
Then he shut the window, and crossing over, sat down on his bed.
All this surprised me, so I asked him, "Are you going to keep
flies any more?"
"No," said he. "I am sick of all that rubbish!"
He certainly is a wonderfully interesting study.
I wish I could get some glimpse of his mind or of the cause of his
sudden passion. Stop. There may be a clue after all, if we can
find why today his paroxysms came on at high noon and at sunset.
Dracula |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: on their staying, and, to make sure of it, treated them as Apollo
treated Marsyas, or an Bartholinus has treated a fellow-creature in
his title-page, and, having divested them of the one essential and
perfectly fitting garment, indispensable in the mildest climates,
nailed the same on the church-door as we do the banns of marriage,
IN TERROREM.
[There was a laugh at this among some of the young folks; but as I
looked at our landlady, I saw that "the water stood in her eyes,"
as it did in Christiana's when the interpreter asked her about the
spider, and I fancied, but wasn't quite sure that the
schoolmistress blushed, as Mercy did in the same conversation, as
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
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 Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: turning towards me, he continued, asking 'And what did that
poor young man say?'
"I did not know what to answer, as you had so strictly
enjoined me never to allow any one to guess the interest
which you are taking in the bulb. Fortunately, my father
saved me from the difficulty by chiming in, --
"'What did he say? Didn't he fume and fret?'
"I interrupted him, saying, 'Was it not natural that be
should be furious, you were so unjust and brutal, father?'
"'Well, now, are you mad?' cried my father; 'what immense
misfortune is it to crush a tulip bulb? You may buy a
The Black Tulip |
