| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: betrayal of his not being at rest, and I presently caught one,
but not in the form I had expected. His voice tinkled out.
"I say, you there--come in." It was a gaiety in the gloom!
I went in with my light and found him, in bed, very wide awake,
but very much at his ease. "Well, what are YOU up to?"
he asked with a grace of sociability in which it occurred
to me that Mrs. Grose, had she been present, might have looked
in vain for proof that anything was "out."
I stood over him with my candle. "How did you know I was there?"
"Why, of course I heard you. Did you fancy you made no noise?
You're like a troop of cavalry!" he beautifully laughed.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: "Well, it makes very little difference to us whether we are robbed at
a restaurant or by a cook," said Lousteau.
"Henceforth, for the cost of your dinner, you shall live like a
prince."
Having induced the landlord to let her have a kitchen and two
servants' rooms, Madame de la Baudraye wrote a few lines to her
mother, begging her to send her some linen and a loan of a thousand
francs. She received two trunks full of linen, some plate, and two
thousand francs, sent by the hand of an honest and pious cook
recommended her by her mother.
Ten days after the evening at the theatre when they had met, Monsieur
The Muse of the Department |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you.
I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that
"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with
the institution of slavery where it exists. I believe I have
no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."
Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge
that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had
never recanted them. And, more than this, they placed in the
platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me,
the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read:
"Resolved: that the maintenance inviolate
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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 Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: according to the "Acts," the earliest disciples attached to the
principle of communism, as illustrated in the legend of Ananias
and Sapphira, we must admit strong reasons for believing that
Jesus himself held views which tended toward the abolition of
private property. On this point, the testimony of the third
evangelist singly is of considerable weight; since at the time
when he wrote, the communistic theories of the first generation
of Christians had been generally abandoned, and in the absence of
any dogmatic motives, he could only have inserted these
particular traditions because he believed them to possess
historical value. But we are not dependent on the third gospel
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
