| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: blackened by fire, and beneath them broken pots and a knife of flint.
I looked down into the crack--it was very deep, and green with moss,
and tall ferns grew about in it, for the damp gathered there. There
was nothing else. I had dreamed a lying dream. I turned to go, then
found another mind, and climbed down into the cleft, pushing aside the
ferns. Beneath the ferns was moss; I scraped it away with the Watcher.
Presently the iron of the club struck on something that was yellow and
round like a stone, and from the yellow thing came a hollow sound. I
lifted it, Umslopogaas; it was the skull of a child.
"I dug deeper and scraped away more moss, till presently I saw.
Beneath the moss was nothing but the bones of men--old bones that had
Nada the Lily |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: where he let them out of the wagon, telling them they must return
home. He then arranged his clothing, and, setting his hat firmly
on his head, started his horse on a trot.
The two children, Mishka and Mashka, both barefooted, started
running at such a rapid pace that a strange dog from another
village, seeing them flying over the road, dropped his tail
between his legs and ran home squealing.
The weather was very cold, a sharp cutting wind blowing
continuously; but this did not disturb Polikey, whose mind was
engrossed with pleasant thoughts. As he rode through the wintry
blasts he kept repeating to himself: "So I am the man they wanted
The Kreutzer Sonata |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: Time to go home!" But there is a river in the country where you
have gone, is there not?--a river with trees growing all along it--
evergreen trees; and somewhere by those shady banks, within sound
of clear running waters, I think you will be dreaming and waiting
for your boy, if he follows the trail that you have shown him even
to the end.
1895.
AMPERSAND
It is not the walking merely, it is keeping yourself in tune for a
walk, in the spiritual and bodily condition in which you can find
entertainment and exhilaration in so simple and natural a pastime.
|
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 Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: Zane. The only good Indian was a dead Indian. Years of war and bloodshed, of
merciless cruelty at the hands of redmen, of the hard, border life had
rendered these frontiersmen incapable of compassion for any savage.
Jim no longer restrained himself.
"Bordermen you may be, but from my standpoint, from any man's, from God's, you
are a lot of coldly indifferent cowards!" exclaimed Jim, with white, quivering
lips. "I understand now. Few of you will risk anything for Indians. You will
not believe a savage can be a Christian. You don't care if they are all
murdered. Any man among you--any man, I say--would step out before those
howling fiends and boldly demand that there be no bloodshed. A courageous
leader with a band of determined followers could avert this tragedy. You might
The Spirit of the Border |
