The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: the same vein. 'That this may be so,' he wrote, 'I long with the
longing of David for the water of Bethlehem. But no man need die
for the water a poet can give, and all can drink it to the end of
time, and their thirst be quenched and the pool never dry - and the
thirst and the water are both blessed.' It was in the Greeks
particularly that he found this blessed water; he loved 'a fresh
air' which he found 'about the Greek things even in translations';
he loved their freedom from the mawkish and the rancid. The tale
of David in the Bible, the ODYSSEY, Sophocles, AEschylus,
Shakespeare, Scott; old Dumas in his chivalrous note; Dickens
rather than Thackeray, and the TALE OF TWO CITIES out of Dickens:
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: etsi sine ullo periculo legionis delectae cum equitatu proelium fore
videbat, tamen committendum non putabat ut, pulsis hostibus, dici posset
eos ab se per fidem in conloquio circumventos. Postea quam in vulgus
militum elatum est qua arrogantia in conloquio Ariovistus usus omni Gallia
Romanis interdixisset, impetumque in nostros eius equites fecissent, eaque
res conloquium ut diremisset, multo maior alacritas studiumque pugnandi
maius exercitui iniectum est.
Biduo post Ariovistus ad Caesarem legatos misit: velle se de iis
rebus quae inter eos egi coeptae neque perfectae essent agere cum eo: uti
aut iterum conloquio diem constitueret aut, si id minus vellet, ex suis
legatis aliquem ad se mitteret. Conloquendi Caesari causa visa non est,
|
The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: worthy people; he therefore thought it advisable to prepare their
minds.
"You are going to see," he said to Pillerault and the two ladies, "a
thorough original, who hides his methods under a fearfully bad style
of manners; from a very inferior position he has raised himself up by
intelligence. He will acquire better manners through his intercourse
with bankers. You may see him on the boulevard, or on a cafe tippling,
disorderly, betting at billiards, and think him a mere idler; but he
is not; he is thinking and studying all the time to keep industry
alive by new projects."
"I understand that," said Birotteau; "I got my great ideas when
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
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 Contrast by Royall Tyler: 'Prince of Parthia,' a tragedy by Thomas Godfrey
of Philadelphia, which was probably written, and was
offered to Hallam's company in 1759 (but not pro-
duced), and was printed in 1765, two years after the
author's death.<1>
A comedy called the 'Mercenary Match,' by one
Barnabas Bidwell, is said to have been performed by
the students at Yale College, under the auspices of the
Rev. Dr. Ezra Styles, President of the College. Dun-
lap speaks of having heard it read, but does not men-
tion whether it was from a manuscript or printed
|