| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: his rod over the left side; Cornelia in the stern, with her rod over
the right side. The night was cloudy and very black. Each of them
had put on the largest possible fly, one a "Bee-Pond" and the other
a "Dragon;" but even these were invisible. They measured out the
right length of line, and let the flies drift back until they hung
over the shoal, in the curly water where the two currents meet.
There were three other boats to the left of them. McTurk was their
only neighbour in the darkness on the right. Once they heard him
swearing softly to himself, and knew that he had hooked and lost a
fish.
Away down at the tail of the pool, dimly visible through the gloom,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: begins to sink towards it. Thereon his next neighbour in the
airy heights sailing leisurely through the blue gulf, at a distance
perhaps of some miles, follows his example, knowing that food
has been sighted. Down he goes, and all the vultures within
sight of him follow after, and so do all those in sight of them.
In this way the vultures for twenty miles round can be summoned
to the feast in a few minutes.
We buried our dead in solemn silence, Good being selected to
read the Burial Service over them (in the absence of Mr Mackenzie,
confined to bed), as he was generally allowed to possess the
best voice and most impressive manner. It was melancholy in
Allan Quatermain |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: with it? And she will listen to me. I can tell she will. I know I can be
so she'll listen, and it will go all right, for I'll ask so hard. And
everything'll come out straight. Yu' see, I've not been spending to speak
of since Billy's on my hands, and now I'll fix up my cabin and finish my
fencing and my ditch--and she's going to like Box Elder Creek better than
Shawhan. She's the first I've ever loved."
"Then I'd like to ask--" I cried out.
"Ask away!" he exclaimed, inattentively, in his enthusiasm.
"When you--" but I stopped, perceiving it impossible. It was, of course,
not the many transient passions on which he had squandered his substance,
but the one where faith also had seemed to unite. Had he not married
|
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 A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: the refinements of modern civilization are summed up in the phrase. It
is monumental."
"Look here, my dear Nathan, what farrago of nonsense is this?" asked
the Marquise in bewilderment.
"Madame la Marquise," returned Nathan, "you do not know the value of
these 'precious' phrases; I am talking Sainte-Beuve, the new kind of
French.--I resume. Walking one day arm in arm with a friend along the
boulevard, he was accosted by a ferocious creditor, who inquired:
" 'Are you thinking of me, sir?'
" 'Not the least in the world,' answered the Count.
"Remark the difficulty of the position. Talleyrand, in similar
|
