| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: to any who think such elucidation of the poem worth the trouble.
To another work of anthropo-logy I am indebted in general, one which has
influenced our generation profoundly; I mean _The Golden Bough_; I have
used especially the two volumes _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_. Anyone who is
acquainted with these works will immediately recognize in the poem
certain references to vegetation ceremonies.
<1> Macmillan] Cambridge.
I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
Line 20. Cf. Ezekiel 2:7.
23. Cf. Ecclesiastes 12:5.
31. _V. Tristan und Isolde_, i, verses 5-8.
The Waste Land |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: they felt. The old priest was the least overcome, probably because he
ran the greatest danger. If a brave man is weighed down by great
calamities or the yoke of persecution, he begins, as it were, by
making the sacrifice of himself; and thereafter every day of his life
becomes one more victory snatched from fate. But from the way in which
the women looked at him it was easy to see that their intense anxiety
was on his account.
"Why should our faith in God fail us, my sisters?" he said, in low but
fervent tones. "We sang His praises through the shrieks of murderers
and their victims at the Carmelites. If it was His will that I should
come alive out of that butchery, it was, no doubt, because I was
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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 Symposium by Xenophon: youth should pass, and sickness should mar his features, the tie
of friendship will not be weakened."
If, then, they own a mutual devotion,[38] how can it but be, they will
take delight in gazing each into the other's eyes, hold kindly
converse, trust and be trusted, have forethought for each other, in
success rejoice together, in misfortune share their troubles; and so
long as health endures make merry cheer, day in day out; or if either
of them should fall on sickness, then will their intercourse be yet
more constant; and if they cared for one another face to face, much
more will they care when parted.[39] Are not all these the outward
tokens of true loveliness?[40] In the exercise of such sweet offices,
The Symposium |
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 Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: building, facing east and west, which connected the chateau of the
counts of Blois with the rest of the old structures, of which nothing
now remains but the vast hall in which the States-general were held
under Henri III.
Before he became enamoured of Chambord, Francois I. wished to complete
the chateau of Blois by adding two other wings, which would have made
the structure a perfect square. But Chambord weaned him from Blois,
where he built only one wing, which in his time and that of his
grandchildren was the only inhabited part of the chateau. This third
building erected by Francois I. is more vast and far more decorated
than the Louvre, the chateau of Henri II. It is in the style of
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