| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: rush. But it is not equal. After passages of really
admirable versification, the author falls back upon a sort of
loose, cavalry manner, not unlike the style of some of Mr.
Browning's minor pieces, and almost inseparable from
wordiness, and an easy acceptation of somewhat cheap finish.
There is nothing here of that compression which is the note
of a really sovereign style. It is unfair, perhaps, to set a
not remarkable passage from Lord Lytton side by side with one
of the signal masterpieces of another, and a very perfect
poet; and yet it is interesting, when we see how the
portraiture of a dog, detailed through thirty odd lines, is
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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 Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: "I must be ill. My head's in a sort of . . . fog. My thoughts are
in a maze."
He closed the door that Lipa might not hear, and went on softly:
"I am unhappy about my money. Do you remember on Low Sunday
before his wedding Anisim's bringing me some new roubles and
half-roubles? One parcel I put away at the time, but the others I
mixed with my own money. When my uncle Dmitri Filatitch -- the
kingdom of heaven be his -- was alive, he used constantly to go
journeys to Moscow and to the Crimea to buy goods. He had a wife,
and this same wife, when he was away buying goods, used to take
up with other men. She had half a dozen children. And when uncle
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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 The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: his abstraction being such that he hardly was conscious of Marty's
presence beside him. From the nature of their employment, in
which he handled the spade and she merely held the tree, it
followed that he got good exercise and she got none. But she was
an heroic girl, and though her out-stretched hand was chill as a
stone, and her cheeks blue, and her cold worse than ever, she
would not complain while he was disposed to continue work. But
when he paused she said, "Mr. Winterborne, can I run down the lane
and back to warm my feet?"
"Why, yes, of course," he said, awakening anew to her existence.
"Though I was just thinking what a mild day it is for the season.
The Woodlanders |
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 Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: to any one of my temperament, for I am well known for my
sympathetic nature. In fact, you should take example by me; you
could not possibly have a better model. Now that you have the
chance you had better avail yourself of it, for I am going back to
Court almost immediately. I am a great favourite at Court; in
fact, the Prince and Princess were married yesterday in my honour.
Of course you know nothing of these matters, for you are a
provincial."
"There is no good talking to him," said a Dragon-fly, who was
sitting on the top of a large brown bulrush; "no good at all, for
he has gone away."
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