| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: when the German marines raided the town in search of Malietoa,
burst into private houses, and were accused (I am willing to
believe on slender grounds) of violence to private persons.
On the morrow, the 25th, one of the German war-ships, which had
been despatched to Leulumoenga over night re-entered the bay,
flying the Tamasese colours at the fore. The new king was given a
royal salute of twenty-one guns, marched through the town by the
commodore and a German guard of honour, and established on Mulinuu
with two or three hundred warriors. Becker announced his
recognition to the other consuls. These replied by proclaiming
Malietoa, and in the usual mealy-mouthed manner advised Samoans to
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: thus the mother-world remembered him, it was like the touch of a warm
hand, a dear and tender caress; a distant life, by him long left behind,
seemed to be drawing the exile homeward from these alien shores. As the
time for his letters and packets drew near, the eyes of Padre Ignacio
would be often fixed wistfully upon the harbor, watching for the
barkentine. Sometimes, as to-day, he mistook other sails for hers, but
hers he mistook never. That Pacific Ocean, which, for all its hues and
jeweled mists, he could not learn to love, had, since long before his
day, been furrowed by the keels of Spain. Traders, and adventurers, and
men of God had passed along this coast, planting their colonies and
cloisters; but it was not his ocean. In the year that we, a thin strip of
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: precluded all grace; the mere motion with which she twitched her
handkerchief from her bag and blew her nose with a loud noise would
have shown her character and habits to a keen observer. Being rather
tall, she held herself very erect, and justified the remark of a
naturalist who once explained the peculiar gait of old maids by
declaring that their joints were consolidating. When she walked her
movements were not equally distributed over her whole person, as they
are in other women, producing those graceful undulations which are so
attractive. She moved, so to speak, in a single block, seeming to
advance at each step like the statue of the Commendatore. When she
felt in good humour she was apt, like other old maids, to tell of the
|
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 Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: credit of Grandet of Saumur, the hopes he diffused by means of des
Grassins in the minds of all concerned, facilitated the transactions.
Not a single creditor proved recalcitrant; no one thought of passing
his claim to his profit-and-loss account; each and all said
confidently, "Grandet of Saumur will pay."
Six months went by. The Parisians had redeemed the notes in
circulation as they fell due, and held them under lock and key in
their desks. First result aimed at by the old cooper! Nine months
after this preliminary meeting, the two liquidators distributed forty-
seven per cent to each creditor on his claim. This amount was obtained
by the sale of the securities, property, and possessions of all kinds
Eugenie Grandet |
