| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: can't reconcile my mind to their taking up with Kanakas, and I'd
like to know where I'm to find the whites?
THE BOTTLE IMP.
Note. - Any student of that very unliterary product, the English
drama of the early part of the century, will here recognise the
name and the root idea of a piece once rendered popular by the
redoubtable O. Smith. The root idea is there and identical, and
yet I hope I have made it a new thing. And the fact that the tale
has been designed and written for a Polynesian audience may lend it
some extraneous interest nearer home. - R. L. S.
THERE was a man of the Island of Hawaii, whom I shall call Keawe;
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: became bishop of Pinner. When they gave it him, had any one of
them dreamt that some day he might be moved to strike an
ungracious blow at the mother church that had reared them all?
It was his custom to join the family in the drawing-room after
dinner. To-night he was a little delayed by Whippham, with some
trivialities about next month's confirmations in Pringle and
Princhester. When he came in he found Miriam playing, and playing
very beautifully one of those later sonatas of Beethoven, he
could never remember whether it was Of. 109 or Of. 111, but he
knew that he liked it very much; it was solemn and sombre with
phases of indescribable sweetness--while Clementina, Daphne
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: to let it be seen, and so he kept up the conversa-
tion. Theodorite was glum and silent; the stu-
dent occasionally exchanged a few words with the
widow. Now and again there was a pause in
the conversation, and then Theodorite interposed,
and every one became miserably depressed. At
such moments the hostess ordered some dish that
had not been served, and the footman hurried
off to the kitchen, or to the housekeeper, and hur-
ried back again. Nobody felt inclined either to
talk or to eat. But they all forced themselves
The Forged Coupon |
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 Professor by Charlotte Bronte: their knees; they had given up giggling and whispering to each
other, and no longer ventured to utter pert speeches in my
presence; they now only talked to me occasionally with their
eyes, by means of which organs they could still, however, say
very audacious and coquettish things. Had affection, goodness,
modesty, real talent, ever employed those bright orbs as
interpreters, I do not think I could have refrained from giving a
kind and encouraging, perhaps an ardent reply now and then; but
as it was, I found pleasure in answering the glance of vanity
with the gaze of stoicism. Youthful, fair, brilliant, as were
many of my pupils, I can truly say that in me they never saw any
The Professor |
