| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: thou charm of peace! Open the gates of our hearts. Lift the
weight of our joy and bear it upward.
"For all good gifts, for all perfect gifts, for love, for
life, for the world, we praise, we bless, we thank--"
As a soaring bird, struck by an arrow, falls headlong from
the sky, so the song of Hermas fell. At the end of his flight
of gratitude there was nothing--a blank, a hollow space.
He looked for a face, and saw a void. He sought for a
hand, and clasped vacancy. His heart was throbbing and
swelling with passion; the bell swung to and fro within him,
beating from side to side as if it would burst; but not a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: but it's taking and original, and a man is not on oath in an
advertisement. All that I require now is the ready cash for my
own meals and for the advertisement, and--no, I can't lavish
money upon John, but I'll give him some more papers. How to raise
the wind?'
He approached his cabinet of signets, and the collector suddenly
revolted in his blood. 'I will not!' he cried; 'nothing shall
induce me to massacre my collection--rather theft!' And dashing
upstairs to the drawing-room, he helped himself to a few of his
uncle's curiosities: a pair of Turkish babooshes, a Smyrna fan, a
water-cooler, a musket guaranteed to have been seized from an
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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 Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: Were we not bound to each other for life? Who that believes in
love foresees such an end to love? You swear to love us
eternally; how, then, can our interests be separate?
"You do not know how I suffered to-day when Nucingen refused to
give me six thousand francs; he spends as much as that every
month on his mistress, an opera dancer! I thought of killing
myself. The wildest thoughts came into my head. There have been
moments in my life when I have envied my servants, and would have
changed places with my maid. It was madness to think of going to
our father, Anastasie and I have bled him dry; our poor father
would have sold himself if he could have raised six thousand
Father Goriot |
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 Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives 220
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,
The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights
Her stove, and lays out food in tins.
Out of the window perilously spread
Her drying combinations touched by the sun's last rays,
On the divan are piled (at night her bed)
Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays.
I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs
Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest --
I too awaited the expected guest. 230
The Waste Land |
