| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Faith of Men by Jack London: later), but simple beatings and crude brutalities. In one of these
Batard had an ear injured. He never regained control of the riven
muscles, and ever after the ear drooped limply down to keep keen
the memory of his tormentor. And he never forgot.
His puppyhood was a period of foolish rebellion. He was always
worsted, but he fought back because it was his nature to fight
back. And he was unconquerable. Yelping shrilly from the pain of
lash and club, he none the less contrived always to throw in the
defiant snarl, the bitter vindictive menace of his soul which
fetched without fail more blows and beatings. But his was his
mother's tenacious grip on life. Nothing could kill him. He
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: of men talking about their school-days, and you will soon find that
fiction, which must, if it is to be sold and read, stop short of being
positively sickening, dare not tell the whole truth about the people
to whom children are handed over on educational pretexts. Not very
long ago a schoolmaster in Ireland was murdered by his boys; and for
reasons which were never made public it was at first decided not to
prosecute the murderers. Yet all these flogging schoolmasters and
orphanage fiends and baby farmers are "lovers of children." They are
really child fanciers (like bird fanciers or dog fanciers) by
irresistible natural predilection, never happy unless they are
surrounded by their victims, and always certain to make their living
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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 Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: and eyed it awhile with a dead interest, then broke it open, and
began to skim it over. Richards, sitting there with his chair
tilted back against the wall and his chin between his knees, heard
something fall. It was his wife. He sprang to her side, but she
cried out:
"Leave me alone, I am too happy. Read the letter--read it!"
He did. He devoured it, his brain reeling. The letter was from a
distant State, and it said:
"I am a stranger to you, but no matter: I have something to tell.
I have just arrived home from Mexico, and learned about that
episode. Of course you do not know who made that remark, but I
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
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 Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: Thence the thousand cries, the thousand railleries, the
thousand laughs, one of which, more brilliant than the rest,
had startled the birds in the gardens, and disturbed the
slumbers of Monsieur's guards.
We are taking portraits now; we shall be allowed, therefore,
we hope, to sketch the two last of this chapter.
The one who was leaning in the chair -- that is to say, the
joyous, the laughing one -- was a beautiful girl of from
eighteen to twenty, with brown complexion and brown hair,
splendid, from eyes which sparkled beneath strongly-marked
brows, and particularly from her teeth, which seemed to
Ten Years Later |
