| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: fright on her face; at the same moment, the men became cognisant of
a thick smoke which began to spread through the room--a smoke which
made those who experienced it gasp and choke. The footmen began to
edge uneasily towards the inner door. Denser and denser grew the
smoke, and more acrid its smell. Mimi, towards whom the draught
from the open door wafted the smoke, rose up choking, and ran to the
inner door, which she threw open to its fullest extent, disclosing
on the outside a curtain of thin silk, fixed to the doorposts. The
draught from the open door swayed the thin silk towards her, and in
her fright, she tore down the curtain, which enveloped her from head
to foot. Then she ran through the still open door, heedless of the
Lair of the White Worm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: understood in America, appears to me to be as direct and as
extreme a consequence of the sovereignty of the people as
universal suffrage. These institutions are two instruments of
equal power, which contribute to the supremacy of the majority.
All the sovereigns who have chosen to govern by their own
authority, and to direct society instead of obeying its
directions, have destroyed or enfeebled the institution of the
jury. The monarchs of the House of Tudor sent to prison jurors
who refused to convict, and Napoleon caused them to be returned
by his agents.
[Footnote f: [This may be true to some extent of special juries,
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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 Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: society only by snatches; it is to him a sort of dream. His house is a
convent, where he leads the life of a Benedictine; the same sobriety
of regimen, the same regularity of occupation. His friends knew that
up to the present time woman had been to him no more than an always
dreaded circumstance; he had observed her too much not to fear her;
but by dint of studying her he had ceased to understand her,--like, in
this, to those deep strategists who are always beaten on unexpected
ground, where their scientific axioms are either modified or
contradicted. In character he still remains a simple-hearted child,
all the while proving himself an observer of the first rank. This
contrast, apparently impossible, is explainable to those who know how
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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 Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: so it generally ended in its being fastened on, anyhow, across the rudder.
The helmsman used to stand by with tears in his eyes; he knew it was all wrong,
but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, "No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm,"
had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words "and the Man at the
Helm shall speak to no one." So remonstrance was impossible, and no steering
could be done till the next varnishing day. During these bewildering intervals
the ship usually sailed backwards.
As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the Jabberwock,
let me take this opportunity of answering a question that has often been asked
me, how to pronounce "slithy toves." The "i" in "slithy" is long, as in
"writhe"; and "toves" is pronounced so as to rhyme with "groves." Again, the
The Hunting of the Snark |
