| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: time in fifteen years. I suppose she discovered very soon that she
had nothing in common with that sailor, that stranger, fashioned and
marked by the sea of long voyages. In her strong-minded way she had
scorned pretences, had gone to her writing which interested her
immensely. A very praiseworthy thing your sincere conduct,--if it
didn't at times resemble brutality so much. But I don't think it
was compunction. That sentiment is rare in women . . . "
"Is it?" I interrupted indignantly.
"You know more women than I do," retorted the unabashed Marlow.
"You make it your business to know them--don't you? You go about a
lot amongst all sorts of people. You are a tolerably honest
Chance |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: fountains, and a sheet of blood flowed over the mosaics with their
powdering of blue dust. The Suffet dipped his hand into this hot mire
and rubbed his knees with it: it was a cure.
When evening had come he stole away from the town with his escort, and
made his way into the mountain to rejoin his army.
He succeeded in finding the remains of it.
Four days afterward he was on the top of a defile at Gorza, when the
troops under Spendius appeared below. Twenty stout lances might easily
have checked them by attacking the head of their column, but the
Carthaginians watched them pass by in a state of stupefaction. Hanno
recognised the king of the Numidians in the rearguard; Narr' Havas
Salammbo |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: legend, or like M. de Humboldt, whom he quotes, are disposed to find in it
a vestige of a widely-spread tradition. Others, adopting a different vein
of reflection, regard the Island of Atlantis as the anticipation of a still
greater island--the Continent of America. 'The tale,' says M. Martin,
'rests upon the authority of the Egyptian priests; and the Egyptian priests
took a pleasure in deceiving the Greeks.' He never appears to suspect that
there is a greater deceiver or magician than the Egyptian priests, that is
to say, Plato himself, from the dominion of whose genius the critic and
natural philosopher of modern times are not wholly emancipated. Although
worthless in respect of any result which can be attained by them,
discussions like those of M. Martin (Timee) have an interest of their own,
|
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 Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: The redbreast looks in vain
For hips and haws,
Lo, shining flowers upon my window-pane
The silver pencil of the winter draws.
When all the snowy hill
And the bare woods are still;
When snipes are silent in the frozen bogs,
And all the garden garth is whelmed in mire,
Lo, by the hearth, the laughter of the logs -
More fair than roses, lo, the flowers of fire!
Saranac Lake.
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