| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: course, this taste is to become critical and self-conscious, but at
first it is to exist purely as a cultivated instinct, and 'he who
has received this true culture of the inner man will with clear and
certain vision perceive the omissions and faults in art or nature,
and with a taste that cannot err, while he praises, and finds his
pleasure in what is good, and receives it into his soul, and so
becomes good and noble, he will rightly blame and hate the bad, now
in the days of his youth, even before he is able to know the reason
why': and so, when, later on, the critical and self-conscious
spirit develops in him, he 'will recognise and salute it as a
friend with whom his education has made him long familiar.' I need
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: ish bird, attacked by the cat, shrieked for help in
human accents, she ran out into the yard stopping
her ears, and did not prevent the crime. For Mrs.
Smith this was another evidence of her stupidity;
on the other hand, her want of charm, in view of
Smith's well-known frivolousness, was a great rec-
commendation. Her short-sighted eyes would swim
with pity for a poor mouse in a trap, and she had
been seen once by some boys on her knees in the wet
grass helping a toad in difficulties. If it's true, as
some German fellow has said, that without phos-
Amy Foster |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: This was enough for Antonia. She liked me better from that
time on, and she never took a supercilious air with me again.
I had killed a big snake--I was now a big fellow.
VIII
WHILE THE AUTUMN COLOUR was growing pale on the grass and cornfields,
things went badly with our friends the Russians. Peter told his
troubles to Mr. Shimerda: he was unable to meet a note which fell due
on the first of November; had to pay an exorbitant bonus on renewing it,
and to give a mortgage on his pigs and horses and even his milk cow.
His creditor was Wick Cutter, the merciless Black Hawk money-lender, a man
of evil name throughout the county, of whom I shall have more to say later.
My Antonia |
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 Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: her head was on his shoulder, his face against her hair. As it
happened, it was Mr. Jamieson who broke up the tableau.
He stepped over to Alex and touched him on the arm.
"And now," he said quietly, "how long are you and I to play
OUR little comedy, Mr. Bailey?"
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE ODDS AND ENDS
Of Doctor Walker's sensational escape that night to South
America, of the recovery of over a million dollars in cash and
securities in the safe from the chimney room--the papers have
kept the public well informed. Of my share in discovering the
The Circular Staircase |
