| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: coincidence that the two most impersonal nations of Europe and Asia
respectively, the French and the Japanese, are at the same time the
most artistic. Even politeness, which, as we have seen,
distinguishes both, is itself but a form of art,--the social art of
living agreeably with one's fellows.
This impersonality comes out with all the more prominence when we
pass from the consideration of art in itself to the spirit which
actuates that art, and especially when we compare their spirit with
our own. The mainsprings of Far Eastern art may be said to be
three: Nature, Religion, and Humor. Incongruous collection that
they are, all three witness to the same trait. For the first
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: the fewest mistakes?
Erasistratus agreed to this.
SOCRATES: Then the wisest and those who do best and the most fortunate and
the richest would appear to be all one and the same, if wisdom is really
the most valuable of our possessions?
Yes, said Eryxias, interposing, but what use would it be if a man had the
wisdom of Nestor and wanted the necessaries of life, food and drink and
clothes and the like? Where would be the advantage of wisdom then? Or how
could he be the richest of men who might even have to go begging, because
he had not wherewithal to live?
I thought that what Eryxias was saying had some weight, and I replied,
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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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: of what he has done, there comes a flash of truculent joy at
the 'twenty trenched gashes' on Banquo's head. Thus Macbeth
makes welcome to his imagination those very details of
physical horror which are so soon to turn sour in him. As he
runs out to embrace these cruel circumstances, as he seeks to
realise to his mind's eye the reassuring spectacle of his
dead enemy, he is dressing out the phantom to terrify
himself; and his imagination, playing the part of justice, is
to 'commend to his own lips the ingredients of his poisoned
chalice.' With the recollection of Hamlet and his father's
spirit still fresh upon him, and the holy awe with which that
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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 Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: a full account of what had happened, but had the exquisite delight
of conveying it to Mr Tappertit for his jealousy and torture. For
that gentleman, on account of Dolly's indisposition, had been
requested to take his supper in the workshop, and it was conveyed
thither by Miss Miggs's own fair hands.
'Oh Simmun!' said the young lady, 'such goings on to-day! Oh,
gracious me, Simmun!'
Mr Tappertit, who was not in the best of humours, and who
disliked Miss Miggs more when she laid her hand on her heart and
panted for breath than at any other time, as her deficiency of
outline was most apparent under such circumstances, eyed her over
Barnaby Rudge |
