The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson: choose to show my sketch. Van Tromp's daughter! The
Admiral's daughter! I delight in that name. The Admiral!
And so you know my father?'
'Well,' said Dick, 'I met him often; we were even intimate.
He may have mentioned my name - Naseby.'
'He writes so little. He is so busy, so devoted to his art!
I have had a half wish,' she added laughing, 'that my father
was a plainer man, whom I could help - to whom I could be a
credit; but only sometimes, you know, and with only half my
heart. For a great painter! You have seen his works?'
'I have seen some of them,' returned Dick; 'they - they are
|
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 Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: negation. There is something, at least, NOT TO BE DONE each day; and
a cold triumph awaits him every evening.
We had one on board with us, whom I have already referred to under
the name Mackay, who seemed to me not only a good instance of this
failure in life of which we have been speaking, but a good type of
the intelligence which here surrounded me. Physically he was a small
Scotsman, standing a little back as though he were already carrying
the elements of a corporation, and his looks somewhat marred by the
smallness of his eyes. Mentally, he was endowed above the average.
There were but few subjects on which he could not converse with
understanding and a dash of wit; delivering himself slowly and with
|