| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: Estelle Brousseaux, had found, drifting in the open Gulf
(latitude 26 degrees 43 minutes; longitude 88 degrees 17
minutes),--the corpse of a fair-haired woman, clinging to a
table. The body was disfigured beyond recognition: even the
slender bones of the hands had been stripped by the nibs of the
sea-birds-except one finger, the third of the left, which seemed
to have been protected by a ring of gold, as by a charm. Graven
within the plain yellow circlet was a date,--"JUILLET--1851" ;
and the names,--"ADELE + JULIEN,"--separated by a cross. The
Estelle carried coffins that day: most of them were already
full; but there was one for Adele.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: A-Lady, and she also looked grand and important enough for a Mama.
Bessie Bell looked and thought, but she could not tell just exactly
what this lady was.
It was best that she should ask, and then she would surely know.
So she asked: ``Are vou a Lady, ma'am?''
``I hope so, little girl,'' the lady said.
``I thought, maybe, you were a Sister,'' said Bessie Bell.
``No,'' said the lady.
``Like Sister Mary Felice, and Sister Angela, and Sister Helen
Vincula,'' said Bessie Bell.
``No,'' said the lady.
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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 Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: Nina's neck, whispered in her ear--"I can kill him where he
stands, before a sound can pass his lips. For you it is to say
yes or no. Babalatchi cannot be far now."
He straightened himself up, taking his arm off her shoulder, and
confronted Almayer, who looked at them both with an expression of
concentrated fury,
"No!" she cried, clinging to Dain in wild alarm. "No! Kill me!
Then perhaps he will let you go. You do not know the mind of a
white man. He would rather see me dead than standing where I am.
Forgive me, your slave, but you must not." She fell at his feet
sobbing violently and repeating, "Kill me! Kill me!"
Almayer's Folly |
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 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: touch me less than the spitting in the face of Jesus Christ.
Caesar is stabbed by the senators; Christ is cuffed by lackeys.
One feels the God through the greater outrage."
Bossuet, who towered above the interlocutors from the summit
of a heap of paving-stones, exclaimed, rifle in hand:--
"Oh Cydathenaeum, Oh Myrrhinus, Oh Probalinthus, Oh graces of
the AEantides! Oh! Who will grant me to pronounce the verses
of Homer like a Greek of Laurium or of Edapteon?"
CHAPTER III
LIGHT AND SHADOW
Enjolras had been to make a reconnaissance. He had made his way
Les Miserables |
