| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: pleisand weather, When a' the clouds (storms?) has blawn
(gone?) away.' Verses that have a quite inexplicable
attraction for me, and I believe had for Burns. They have no
merit, but are somehow good. I am now in a most excellent
humour.
I am deep in ST. IVES which, I believe, will be the next
novel done. But it is to be clearly understood that I
promise nothing, and may throw in your face the very last
thing you expect - or I expect. ST. IVES will (to my mind)
not be wholly bad. It is written in rather a funny style; a
little stilted and left-handed; the style of St. Ives; also,
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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 Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: country is yellow, and you will notice that 'most everything here is
yellow that has any color at all."
"But I thought this was the Land of Oz," replied the shaggy man,
as if greatly disappointed.
"So it is," she declared; "but there are four parts to the Land of Oz.
The North Country is purple, and it's the Country of the Gillikins.
The East Country is blue, and that's the Country of the Munchkins.
Down at the South is the red Country of the Quadlings, and here, in
the West, the yellow Country of the Winkies. This is the part that is
ruled by the Tin Woodman, you know."
"Who's he?" asked Button-Bright.
The Road to Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: little maiden looked very serious, but she nodded her head, and said, "That's
no matter-that's no matter. Do you know where Lapland lies!" she asked of the
Reindeer.
"Who should know better than I?" said the animal; and his eyes rolled in his
head. "I was born and bred there--there I leapt about on the fields of snow.
"Listen," said the robber maiden to Gerda. "You see that the men are gone;
but my mother is still here, and will remain. However, towards morning she
takes a draught out of the large flask, and then she sleeps a little: then I
will do something for you." She now jumped out of bed, flew to her mother;
with her arms round her neck, and pulling her by the beard, said, "Good
morrow, my own sweet nanny-goat of a mother." And her mother took hold of her
Fairy Tales |
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 Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: since my childhood; I've lived, by means of my pencil, on its follies
and absurdities, at the rate of five caricatures a month.
Consequently, I often laugh at ideas in which I have faith."
"Come, let us get to something else," said Leon. "We'll go to the
Chamber and settle the cousin's affair."
"This," said Bixiou, imitating Odry in "Les Funambules," "is high
comedy, for we will make the first orator we meet pose for us, and you
shall see that in those halls of legislation, as elsewhere, the
Parisian language has but two tones,--Self-interest, Vanity."
As they got into their citadine, Leon saw in a rapidly driven
cabriolet a man to whom he made a sign that he had something to say to
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