| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: cite her verses exactly like Lily Jennings. She can
make her voice exactly like Lily's now. Then every-
body would laugh, and Amelia would not know why.
She would think they were laughing at her dress, and
that would be dreadful."
If Amelia's mother could have heard that conver-
sation everything would have been different, al-
though it is puzzling to decide in what way.
It was the last of the summer vacation in
early September, just before school began, that a
climax came to Amelia's idolatry and imitation of
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: image. And he can paint any other artist, although he knows nothing of
their arts; and this with sufficient skill to deceive children or simple
people. Suppose now that somebody came to us and told us, how he had met a
man who knew all that everybody knows, and better than anybody:--should we
not infer him to be a simpleton who, having no discernment of truth and
falsehood, had met with a wizard or enchanter, whom he fancied to be all-
wise? And when we hear persons saying that Homer and the tragedians know
all the arts and all the virtues, must we not infer that they are under a
similar delusion? they do not see that the poets are imitators, and that
their creations are only imitations. 'Very true.' But if a person could
create as well as imitate, he would rather leave some permanent work and
The Republic |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: wide table, too, which fills up the room so dreadfully!
Had the doctor been contented to take my dining-table when I
came away, as anybody in their senses would have done,
instead of having that absurd new one of his own,
which is wider, literally wider than the dinner-table here,
how infinitely better it would have been! and how much
more he would have been respected! for people are never
respected when they step out of their proper sphere.
Remember that, Fanny. Five--only five to be sitting
round that table. However, you will have dinner enough
on it for ten, I dare say."
Mansfield Park |
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 Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: perfection and receive the incorruptible crowns of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give at that day unto
all them that have loved his appearing."
Ioasaph said unto the elder, "Well then, as the strictness of
these doctrines demandeth such chaste conversation, if, after
baptism, I chance to fail in one or two of these commandments,
shall I therefore utterly miss the goal, and shall all my hope be
vain?"
Barlaam answered, "Deem not so. God, the Word, made man for the
salvation of our race, aware of the exceeding frailty and misery
of our nature, hath not even here suffered our sickness to be
|
