| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from American Notes by Rudyard Kipling: he, and not He, was the centre of attraction. With a voice of
silver and with imagery borrowed from the auction-room, he built
up for his hearers a heaven on the lines of the Palmer House (but
with all the gilding real gold, and all the plate-glass diamond),
and set in the centre of it a loud-voiced, argumentative, very
shrewd creation that he called God. One sentence at this point
caught my delighted ear. It was apropos of some question of the
Judgment, and ran:--"No! I tell you God doesn't do business that
way."
He was giving them a deity whom they could comprehend, and a gold
and jewelled heaven in which they could take a natural interest.
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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 New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: quotation to suggest--oh! mixed good things."
Cossington regarded me abstractedly.
Don't want to put the accent on the City, do we?" said Shoesmith,
who had a feeling for county families, and Naylor supported him by a
murmur of approval.
"We ought to call it the ARVONIAN," decided Cossington, "and we
might very well have underneath, 'With which is incorporated the
OBSERVER.' That picks up the old traditions, makes an appeal to old
boys and all that, and it gives us something to print under the
title."
I still held out for CITY MERCHANDIZE, which had taken my fancy.
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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 Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: by their nest, and throwing out their young ones. 'Out with you, you
idle, good-for-nothing creatures!' cried they; 'we cannot find food
for you any longer; you are big enough, and can provide for
yourselves.' But the poor young ravens lay upon the ground, flapping
their wings, and crying: 'Oh, what helpless chicks we are! We must
shift for ourselves, and yet we cannot fly! What can we do, but lie
here and starve?' So the good young fellow alighted and killed his
horse with his sword, and gave it to them for food. Then they came
hopping up to it, satisfied their hunger, and cried: 'We will remember
you--one good turn deserves another!'
And now he had to use his own legs, and when he had walked a long way,
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
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 Buttered Side Down by Edna Ferber: hole, his mother would give him something rather special for
supper, and set him hoeing and watering the garden.
So Eddie stuck to his job, and waited, and all the time he was
saying, with a melting look, to the last silly little girl who was
drinking her third soda, "Somebody looks mighty sweet in pink
to-day," or while he was doping to-morrow's ball game with one of
the boys who dropped in for a cigar, he was thinking of bigger
things, and longing for a man-size job.
The man-size job loomed up before Eddie's dazzled eyes when he
least expected it. It was at the close of a particularly hot day
when it seemed to Eddie that every one in town had had everything
Buttered Side Down |
