| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: or two urchins who followed us as they might have followed a
menagerie; the hills and the tree-tops looked in from all sides
through the clear air; and the bells were chiming for yet another
service.
Suddenly we sighted the three girls standing, with a fourth sister,
in front of a shop on the wide selvage of the roadway. We had been
very merry with them a little while ago, to be sure. But what was
the etiquette of Origny? Had it been a country road, of course we
should have spoken to them; but here, under the eyes of all the
gossips, ought we to do even as much as bow? I consulted the
CIGARETTE.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: creel with the recollections of a boy and a rod.
And yet, strangely enough, you cannot recall the boy himself at all
distinctly. There is only the faintest image of him on the endless
roll of films that has been wound through your mental camera: and
in the very spots where his small figure should appear, it seems as
if the pictures were always light-struck. Just a blur, and the dim
outline of a new cap, or a well-beloved jacket with extra pockets,
or a much-hated pair of copper-toed shoes--that is all you can see.
But the people that the boy saw, the companions who helped or
hindered him in his adventures, the sublime and marvellous scenes
among the Catskills and the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains, in
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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 Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: fleecers of the poor? Oh! I have sinned indeed!--Oh my God! my God!
let me finish my time in hell here in this world of misery."
And again she cried, "Holy Virgin, Mother of God, have pity upon me!"
"Be comforted, mother. God is not a Lombard usurer. I may have killed
people good and bad at random in my time, but I am not afraid of the
resurrection."
"Ah! master Lancepesade, how happy those fair ladies are, to be so
near to a bishop, a holy man! They will get absolution for their
sins," said the old woman. "Oh! if I could only hear a priest say to
me, 'Thy sins are forgiven!' I should believe it then."
The stranger turned towards her, and the goodness in his face made her
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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 Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: one step against Monsieur de Canalis, I shall take another out of this
house, to which I will never return."
"You will kill your mother, mademoiselle," replied Dumay, who left the
room and called his wife.
The poor mother was indeed half-fainting,--struck to the heart by
Modeste's words.
"Good-bye, wife," said the Breton, kissing the American. "Take care of
the mother; I go to save the daughter."
He made his preparations for the journey in a few minutes, and started
for Havre. An hour later he was travelling post to Paris, with the
haste that nothing but passion or speculation can get out of wheels.
Modeste Mignon |
