| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: words, to renounce the copyright of them.
"But I only request it, and do not direct it. It is a good
thing to do. And it will be good for you to do it; but if you do
not do it, that is your affair. It means that you are not yet
ready to do it. The fact that my writings have been bought and
sold during these last ten years has been the most painful thing in
my whole life to me."
Three copies were made of this will, and they were kept by my
sister Masha, my brother Sergéi, and Tchertkof.
I knew of its existence, but I never saw it till after my
father's death, and I never inquired of anybody about the details.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: Hunting is their most congenial business, or, if the occasion
offers, a little amateur detection. In tracking a criminal,
following a particular horse along a beaten highway, and
drawing inductions from a hair or a footprint, one of those
somnolent, grinning Hodges will suddenly display activity of
body and finesse of mind. By their names ye may know them,
the women figuring as Loveina, Larsenia, Serena, Leanna,
Orreana; the men answering to Alvin, Alva, or Orion,
pronounced Orrion, with the accent on the first. Whether
they are indeed a race, or whether this is the form of
degeneracy common to all back-woodsmen, they are at least
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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 To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: now.
"The whole world ain't a bit too big for me to
spread my elbows in, I can tell you--what's your
name--Bessie--let alone a dam' parlour in a hutch.
Marry! He wants me to marry and settle! And
as likely as not he has looked out the girl too--
dash my soul! And do you know the Judy, may
I ask?"
She shook all over with noiseless dry sobs; but
he was fuming and fretting too much to notice her
distress. He bit his thumb with rage at the mere
To-morrow |
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 Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: whose vivid fancy can lend unutterable value to the most
insignificant trifles, can transform a weed-patch to an Eden! ...
Of her own accord she would ask for her morning bath, as soon as
she opened her eyes;--it even required some severity to prevent
her from remaining in the water too long. The sea appeared to
her as something that had become tame for her sake, something
that loved her in a huge rough way; a tremendous playmate, whom
she no longer feared to see come bounding and barking to lick her
feet. And, little by little, she also learned the wonderful
healing and caressing power of the monster, whose cool embrace at
once dispelled all drowsiness, feverishness, weariness,--even
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