| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: than a foot in height, with downy soft pale green leaves,
and clusters of reddish blossoms, something like valerian."
. . . "One of my sacred flowers," he calls it, and insists on
the "inexplicable attraction" which it had for him. In
various ways of this kind one can perceive how particular
totems came to be selected by particular peoples.
[1] See Reinach, Eng. trans., op. cit., pp. 20, 21.
[2] Far away and Long ago (1918) chs. xvi and xvii.
(3) As to the tendency to divinize these totems, this arises
no doubt partly out of question (2). The animal or
other object admired on account of its strength or swiftness,
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: grouped about the tea-table, were receiving with resonant mirth a
narrative delivered in the fluttered staccato that made Mrs.
Armiger's conversation like the ejaculations of a startled aviary.
She paused as Glennard entered, and he had time to notice that his
wife, who was busied about the tea-tray, had not joined in the
laughter of the men.
"Oh, go on, go on," young Hartly rapturously groaned; and Mrs.
Armiger met Glennard's inquiry with the deprecating cry that
really she didn't see what there was to laugh at. "I'm sure I
feel more like crying. I don't know what I should have done if
Alexa hadn't been home to give me a cup of tea. My nerves are in
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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 Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: the better of her temper. And yet, for all that, a very great evil had
resulted from her training; Ginevra lived with her father and mother
on the footing of an equality which is always dangerous.
Piombo and his wife, persons without education, had allowed Ginevra to
study as she pleased. Following her caprices as a young girl, she had
studied all things for a time, and then abandoned them,--taking up and
leaving each train of thought at will, until, at last, painting had
proved to be her dominant passion. Ginevra would have made a noble
woman had her mother been capable of guiding her studies, of
enlightening her mind, and bringing into harmony her gifts of nature;
her defects came from the fatal education which the old Corsican had
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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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: her purse.
"I do not such things for the purpose of gain," answered the
foreigner; "I dare not turn my art to such a purpose. If I take
the gold of the wealthy, it is but to bestow it on the poor; nor
do I ever accept more than the sum I have already received from
your servant. Put up your purse, madam; an adept needs not your
gold,"
Lady Bothwell, considering this rejection of her sister's offer
as a mere trick of an empiric, to induce her to press a larger
sum upon him, and willing that the scene should be commenced and
ended, offered some gold in turn, observing that it was only to
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