| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: devotion to one who seemed to them an ideal being. So far from
regarding her as a hateful personage, one may feel oneself forbidden
to hate a woman whom God may have loved, and may have pardoned, to
judge from the punishment so swift, and yet so enduring, which He
inflicted. At least, he must so believe who holds that punishment
is a sign of mercy; that the most dreadful of all dooms is impunity.
Nay, more, those "Casket" letters and sonnets may be a relief to the
mind of one who believes in her guilt on other grounds; a relief
when one finds in them a tenderness, a sweetness, a delicacy, a
magnificent self-sacrifice, however hideously misplaced, which shows
what a womanly heart was there; a heart which, joined to that
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: his mind the manifestations of capricious volition. If the
fire burns down his hut, it is because the fire is a person
with a soul, and is angry with him, and needs to be coaxed
into a kindlier mood by means of prayer or sacrifice. Thus the
savage has a priori no alternative but to regard fire-soul as
something akin to human-soul; and in point of fact we find
that savage philosophy makes no distinction between the human
ghost and the elemental demon or deity. This is sufficiently
proved by the universal prevalence of the worship of
ancestors. The essential principle of manes-worship is that
the tribal chief or patriarch, who has governed the community
Myths and Myth-Makers |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: she'd always stayed ashore and held her friends. Some went out o'
mere curiosity, I don't doubt,--there's always such to every
funeral; but most had real feelin', and went purpose to show it.
She'd got most o' the wild sparrows as tame as could be, livin' out
there so long among 'em, and one flew right in and lit on the
coffin an' begun to sing while Mr. Dimmick was speakin'. He was
put out by it, an' acted as if he didn't know whether to stop or go
on. I may have been prejudiced, but I wa'n't the only one thought
the poor little bird done the best of the two."
"What became o' the man that treated her so, did you ever
hear?" asked Mrs. Fosdick. "I know he lived up to Massachusetts
|
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 Odyssey by Homer: lament? Is this but a phantom that the high goddess
Persephone hath sent me, to the end that I may groan for
more exceeding sorrow?"
'So spake I, and my lady mother answered me anon: "Ah me,
my child, of all men most ill-fated, Persephone, the
daughter of Zeus, doth in no wise deceive thee, but even on
this wise it is with mortals when they die. For the sinews
no more bind together the flesh and the bones, but the
great force of burning fire abolishes these, so soon as the
life hath left the white bones, and the spirit like a dream
flies forth and hovers near. But haste with all thine heart
The Odyssey |
