| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: the hermitage bell to go with it, because he too was grieved at having to
kill his villain, and wanted him, if possible, to die in a religious
frame of mind. And Auber touched glasses with me and said--how well I
remember it!--'Is it the good Lord, or is it merely the devil, that makes
me always have a weakness for rascals?' I told him it was the devil. I
was not a priest then. I could not be so sure with my answer now." And
then Padre Ignacio repeated Auber's remark in French: "'Est-ce le bon
Dieu, oui est-ce bien le diable, qui veut tonjours que j'aime les
coquins?" I don't know! I don't know! I wonder if Auber has composed
anything lately? I wonder who is singing 'Zerlina' now?"
He cast a farewell look at the ocean, and took his steps between the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: ment inspired him with distrust. Staring down his
extended legs he let out a grunt--as much as to
say, "That's all very fine, but you can't throw dust
in MY eyes."
At last I was exasperated into saying, "Why
don't you put the matter at rest by talking to Her-
mann?" and I added sneeringly: "You don't ex-
pect me perhaps to speak for you?"
To this he said, very loud for him, "Would
you?"
And for the first time he lifted his head to look
Falk |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: And one time Bessie Bell was at a pretty house and somebody sat her
on a little low chair and said: `` Keep still, Bessie Bell.''
She kept still so long that at last she began to be afraid to move
at all, and she got afraid even to crook up her little finger for
fear it would pop off loud,--she had kept still so long that all her
round little fingers and her round little legs felt so stiff.
Then one, great grown person said: ``She seems a very quiet child.''
And the other said: ``She is a very quiet child--sometimes.''
But just then Bessie Bell turned her head, and though her round
little neck felt stiff it did not pop!--and she saw--something in
a corner that was blue, green, and brown, and soft, and she forgot
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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 Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: his old life, and the change, and the pity he felt for himself,
in the vague content of the fire-lit room, and his nurse with her
interminable knitting through the long afternoons, while the sky
without would thicken and gray, and a few still flakes of snow
would come drifting down to whiten the brown fields,--with no
chilly thought of winter, but only to make the quiet autumn more
quiet. Whatever honest, commonplace affection was in the man
came out in a simple way to this Lois, who ruled his sick whims
and crotchets in such a quiet, sturdy fashion. Not because she
had risked her life to save his; even when he understood that, he
recalled it with an uneasy, heavy gratitude; but the drinks she
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
