| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: sensitive that a disturbance in any part of it causes a "tremour
which is felt on the surface of countless worlds." Our old
experiences of matter give us no account of any substance like
this; yet the undulatory theory of light obliges us to admit such
a substance, and that theory is as well established as the theory
of gravitation. Obviously we have here an enlargement of our
experience of matter. The analysis of the phenomena of light and
radiant heat has brought us into mental relations with matter in
a different state from any in which we previously knew it. For
the supposition that the ether may be something essentially
different from matter is contradicted by all the terms we have
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: usual; but jest then I lets out another big yowl,
and she give me some milk.
I guess the only reason they ever kep' me at
first was so they could quarrel about my name.
They'd lived together a good many years and
quarrelled about everything else under the sun, and
was running out of subjects. A new subject kind
o' briskened things up fur a while.
But finally they went too far with it one time.
I was about two years old then and he was still
calling me Company and her calling me Dunne.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The United States Bill of Rights: The United States Bill of Rights.
The Ten Original Amendments to the Constitution of the United States
Passed by Congress September 25, 1789
Ratified December 15, 1791
I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
II
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
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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 Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: 202. _V._ Verlaine, PARSIFAL.
210. The currants were quoted at a price 'carriage and insurance
free to London'; and the Bill of Lading, etc., were to be handed
to the buyer upon payment of the sight draft.
Notes 196 and 197 were transposed in this and the Hogarth Press edition,
but have been corrected here.
210. 'Carriage and insurance free'] 'cost, insurance and freight'--Editor.
218. Tiresias, although a mere spectator and not indeed a 'character',
is yet the most important personage in the poem, uniting all the rest.
Just as the one-eyed merchant, seller of currants, melts into
the Phoenician Sailor, and the latter is not wholly distinct
The Waste Land |
