| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: use a homely phrase, and when he spoke to her, trying to take her
heart by surprise, she received him but coldly. This aversion,
discerned only by her mother's eyes, was a constant subject of
admonition.
"Rosalie, I cannot imagine why you affect such coldness towards
Amedee. Is it because he is a friend of the family, and because we
like him--your father and I?"
"Well, mamma," replied the poor child one day, "if I made him welcome,
should I not be still more in the wrong?"
"What do you mean by that?" cried Madame de Watteville. "What is the
meaning of such words? Your mother is unjust, no doubt, and according
Albert Savarus |
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 Anabasis by Xenophon: Xenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a
pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans,
and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land
and property in Scillus, where he lived for many
years before having to move once more, to settle
in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.
The Anabasis is his story of the march to Persia
to aid Cyrus, who enlisted Greek help to try and
take the throne from Artaxerxes, and the ensuing
return of the Greeks, in which Xenophon played a
leading role. This occurred between 401 B.C. and
Anabasis |
