| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: death, and it kept possession of the stage for but a short time.
In a dramatic point of view, it has hardly any merits. Whatever
plot there is in it is weak and improbable. The decisive
incidents seem to be brought in like the deus ex machina of the
later Greek drama. There is no movement, no action, no
development. The characters are poetically but not dramatically
conceived. Considered as a tragedy, "Nathan" would be weak;
considered as a comedy, it would be heavy. With full knowledge of
these circumstances, Lessing called it not a drama, but a
dramatic poem; and he might have called it still more accurately
a didactic poem, for the only feature which it has in common with
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: wife (or perhaps only a wandering stranger), that came to the place
of my fathers some generations back, and stayed the matter of a
week, talking often in a tongue that signified nothing to the
hearers; and went again, as she had come, under cloud of night,
leaving not so much as a name behind her. A little fear I had, but
more curiosity; and I opened the hall-door, and entered.
The supper-things still lay upon the table; the shutters were still
closed, although day peeped in the divisions; and the great room
was lighted only with a single taper and some lurching
reverberation of the fire. Close in the chimney sat two men. The
one that was wrapped in a cloak and wore boots, I knew at once: it
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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 The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: him, imagine my astonishment when Nais ran forward and, with the
artlessness of a child, flung her arms about his neck crying out:--
"Are! here is my monsieur who saved me!"
What! the monsieur who saved her? Then Monsieur Dorlange must be the
famous Unknown?--Yes, my dear friend, I now recognized him. Chance,
that cleverest of romance-makers, willed that Monsieur Dorlange and my
bore were one. Happily, my husband had launched into the expression of
his feelings as a grateful father; I thus had time to recover myself,
and before it became my turn to say a word, I had installed upon my
face what you are pleased to call my grand l'Estorade air; under
which, as you know, I mark twenty-five degrees below zero, and can
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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 Talisman by Walter Scott: robber-tribes, who regard nothing in comparison of an opportunity
of plunder.
"The truth has been told to thee, brave Christian," said the
Saracen; "but I swear to thee, by the turban of the Prophet, that
shouldst thou miscarry in any haunt of such villains, I will
myself undertake thy revenge with five thousand horse. I will
slay every male of them, and send their women into such distant
captivity that the name of their tribe shall never again be heard
within five hundred miles of Damascus. I will sow with salt the
foundations of their village, and there shall never live thing
dwell there, even from that time forward."
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