| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: Ella Stowbody, who was a professional, having studied
elocution in Milwaukee, disapproved of Carol's enthusiasm for
recent plays. Miss Stowbody expressed the fundamental principle
of the American drama: the only way to be artistic is to
present Shakespeare. As no one listened to her she sat back
and looked like Lady Macbeth.
III
The Little Theaters, which were to give piquancy to American
drama three or four years later, were only in embryo. But
of this fast coming revolt Carol had premonitions. She knew
from some lost magazine article that in Dublin were innovators
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: June--on the ends of the topmost branches only, a few minute and
delicate red conelike blossoms, the fertile flower of the white
pine looking heavenward. I carried straightway to the village the
topmost spire, and showed it to stranger jurymen who walked the
streets--for it was court week--and to farmers and lumber-dealers
and woodchoppers and hunters, and not one had ever seen the like
before, but they wondered as at a star dropped down. Tell of
ancient architects finishing their works on the tops of columns
as perfectly as on the lower and more visible parts! Nature has
from the first expanded the minute blossoms of the forest only
toward the heavens, above men's heads and unobserved by them. We
Walking |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: A short time before our separation, Lambert said to me:
"Apart from the general laws which I have formulated--and this,
perhaps, will be my glory--laws which must be those of the human
organism, the life of man is Movement determined in each individual by
the pressure of some inscrutable influence--by the brain, the heart,
or the sinews. All the innumerable modes of human existence result
from the proportions in which these three generating forces are more
or less intimately combined with the substances they assimilate in the
environment they live in."
He stopped short, struck his forehead, and exclaimed: "How strange! In
every great man whose portrait I have remarked, the neck is short.
Louis Lambert |
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 The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: than the common run of women; tell her that faithfulness will
prove her lofty spirit.
She probably has fortune enough to continue her life of luxury and
ease. But if she lacks a pleasure, if she has caprices which she
cannot satisfy, be her banker, and do not fear, I WILL return with
wealth.
But, after all, these fears are in vain! Natalie is an angel of
purity and virtue. When Felix de Vandenesse fell deeply in love
with her and began to show her certain attentions, I had only to
let her see the danger, and she instantly thanked me so
affectionately that I was moved to tears. She said that her
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