| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: black on black--that makes it such an artistic achievement? It
reminded me so when I read it of Prince Rupert's maniere noire . . .
the book is etched, not painted, yet one feels the colour
values so intensely . . ."
"Who is HE?" Mrs. Leveret whispered to her neighbour. "Some one
she's met abroad?"
"The wonderful part of the book," Mrs. Ballinger conceded, "is
that it may be looked at from so many points of view. I hear
that as a study of determinism Professor Lupton ranks it with
'The Data of Ethics.'"
"I'm told that Osric Dane spent ten years in preparatory studies
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: some brighter period, when the world should have grown ripe for
it, in Heaven's own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order
to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer
ground of mutual happiness. Earlier in life, Hester had vainly
imagined that she herself might be the destined
318 THE SCARLET LETTER
prophetess, but had long since recognised the impossibility that
The Scarlet Letter |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: he had not heard a word from any human being about Ulysses,
whether he was alive or dead. He sent me, therefore, with a
chariot and horses to Menelaus. There I saw Helen, for whose
sake so many, both Argives and Trojans, were in heaven's wisdom
doomed to suffer. Menelaus asked me what it was that had
brought me to Lacedaemon, and I told him the whole truth,
whereon he said, 'So, then, these cowards would usurp a brave
man's bed? A hind might as well lay her new-born young in the
lair of a lion, and then go off to feed in the forest or in some
grassy dell. The lion, when he comes back to his lair, will make
short work with the pair of them, and so will Ulysses with these
The Odyssey |
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 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: "He will pay."
This laugh was the supreme assertion of certainty and authority.
That which was asserted in this manner must needs be so. His wife did
not insist.
She set about arranging the table; her husband paced the room.
A moment later he added:--
"I owe full fifteen hundred francs!"
He went and seated himself in the chimney-corner, meditating,
with his feet among the warm ashes.
"Ah! by the way," resumed his wife, "you don't forget that I'm
going to turn Cosette out of doors to-day? The monster! She breaks
Les Miserables |
