| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: and get a thing in five minutes."
Mr. Tilney was polite enough to seem interested
in what she said; and she kept him on the subject of
muslins till the dancing recommenced. Catherine feared,
as she listened to their discourse, that he indulged
himself a little too much with the foibles of others.
"What are you thinking of so earnestly?" said he,
as they walked back to the ballroom; "not of your partner,
I hope, for, by that shake of the head, your meditations
are not satisfactory."
Catherine coloured, and said, "I was not thinking
Northanger Abbey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty, which, I confess,
hath always been with me the strongest objection against any
project, how well soever intended.
But in order to justify my friend, he confessed, that this
expedient was put into his head by the famous Salmanaazor, a
native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London,
above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend, that
in his country, when any young person happened to be put to
death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality, as
a prime dainty; and that, in his time, the body of a plump girl
of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the
A Modest Proposal |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: beneath her veil.
And Circe cried, 'Ah, wretched girl, have you forgotten all
your sins, that you come hither to my island, where the
flowers bloom all the year round? Where is your aged father,
and the brother whom you killed? Little do I expect you to
return in safety with these strangers whom you love. I will
send you food and wine: but your ship must not stay here,
for it is foul with sin, and foul with sin its crew.'
And the heroes prayed her, but in vain, and cried, 'Cleanse
us from our guilt!' But she sent them away, and said, 'Go on
to Malea, and there you may be cleansed, and return home.'
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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 An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: "abundance of the bench" is German. But the mother in the home
and the common man say this: "What fills the heart overflows the
mouth." That is speaking with the proper German tongue of the
kind I have tried for, although unfortunately not always
successfully. The literal Latin is a great barrier to speaking
proper German.
So, as the traitor Judas says in Matthew 26: "Ut quid perditio
haec?" and in Mark 14: "Ut quid perditio iste unguenti facta est?"
Subsequently, for these literalist asses I would have to translate
it: "Why has this loss of salve occurred?" But what kind of
German is this? What German says "loss of salve occurred"? And
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