| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: since I had had any news. For two days I fought against
the strong desire to go there that had suddenly seized me,
and assured myself that I would not go, that it would
be absurd to go, undignified, sentimental, and silly,
that I did not know them and would be in an awkward position,
<66> and that I was old enough to know better. But who can
foretell from one hour to the next what a woman will do?
And when does she ever know better? On the third morning I
set out as hopefully as though it were the most natural thing
in the world to fall unexpectedly upon hitherto consistently
neglected cousins, and expect to be received with open arms.
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: explained that the master of a British ship having
died in Bangkok the Consul-General had cabled to
him a request for a competent man to be sent out to
take command.
Apparently, in his mind, I was the man from the
first, though for the looks of the thing the notifica-
tion addressed to the Sailors' Home was general.
An agreement had already been prepared. He
gave it to me to read, and when I handed it back to
him with the remark that I accepted its terms, the
deputy-Neptune signed it, stamped it with his own
The Shadow Line |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: of mental and physical calisthenics that would have landed an
ordinary woman in a sanatorium. She cleaned up with the
thoroughness and dispatch of a housewife who, before going to the
seashore, forgets not instructions to the iceman, the milkman,
the janitor, and the maid. She surveyed her territory, behind
and before, as a general studies troops and countryside before
going into battle; she foresaw factory emergencies, dictated
office policies, made sure of staff organization like the
business woman she was. Out in the stock-room, under her
supervision, there was scientifically packed into sample-trunks
and cases a line of Featherloom skirts and knickers calculated to
Emma McChesney & Co. |
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 Critias by Plato: while to his twin brother, Eumelus, or Gadeirus, he assigned that part of
the country which was nearest the Straits. The other brothers he made
chiefs over the rest of the island. And their kingdom extended as far as
Egypt and Tyrrhenia. Now Atlas had a fair posterity, and great treasures
derived from mines--among them that precious metal orichalcum; and there
was abundance of wood, and herds of elephants, and pastures for animals of
all kinds, and fragrant herbs, and grasses, and trees bearing fruit. These
they used, and employed themselves in constructing their temples, and
palaces, and harbours, and docks, in the following manner:--First, they
bridged over the zones of sea, and made a way to and from the royal palace
which they built in the centre island. This ancient palace was ornamented
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