| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: ÿ
NOTES TO THE HIGHLAND WIDOW.
Note 7.--LOCH AWE.
"Loch Awe, upon the banks of which the scene of action took
place, is thirty-four miles in length. The north side is bounded
by wide muirs and inconsiderable hills, which occupy an extent of
country from twelve to twenty miles in breadth, and the whole of
this space is enclosed as by circumvallation. Upon the north it
is barred by Loch Eitive, on the south by Loch Awe, and on the
east by the dreadful pass of Brandir, through which an arm of the
latter lake opens, at about four miles from its eastern
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: excellent teacher.
It was part of his duty to give her private lessons in the evening,
and some article in the Code made it necessary that a respectable,
elderly woman should be present at these lessons when the teacher
and the taught were of different sexes. Richard Phillotson thought
of the absurdity of the regulation in this case, when he was old
enough to be the girl's father; but he faithfully acted up to it;
and sat down with her in a room where Mrs. Hawes, the widow
at whose house Sue lodged, occupied herself with sewing.
The regulation was, indeed, not easy to evade, for there was no other
sitting-room in the dwelling.
Jude the Obscure |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: to follow the method of Zeno, and that the complex dilemma, though declared
to be capable of universal application, is applied in this instance to
Zeno's familiar question of the 'one and many.' Here, then, is a double
indication of the connexion of the Parmenides with the Eristic school. The
old Eleatics had asserted the existence of Being, which they at first
regarded as finite, then as infinite, then as neither finite nor infinite,
to which some of them had given what Aristotle calls 'a form,' others had
ascribed a material nature only. The tendency of their philosophy was to
deny to Being all predicates. The Megarians, who succeeded them, like the
Cynics, affirmed that no predicate could be asserted of any subject; they
also converted the idea of Being into an abstraction of Good, perhaps with
|
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 Salome by Oscar Wilde: HERODE. Mais non. Je ne comprends pas ce qu'il a dit, mais cela
peut etre un presage.
HERODIAS. Je ne crois pas aux presages. Il parle comme un homme
ivre.
HERODE. Peut-etre qu'il est ivre du vin de Dieu!
HERODIAS. Quel vin est-ce, le vin de Dieu? De quelles vignes
vient-il? Dans quel pressoir peut-on le trouver?
HERODE. [Il ne quitte plus Salome du regard.] Tigellin, quand tu
as ete e Rome dernierement, est-ce que l'empereur t'a parle au sujet
. . .?
TIGELLIN. A quel sujet, Seigneur?
|
