| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: subject he had, on my making his acquaintance, read me that
admirable sketch of. Something told me there was no security but
in his doing so before the new factor, as we used to say at Mr.
Pinhorn's, should render the problem incalculable. It only half-
reassured me that the sketch itself was so copious and so eloquent
that even at the worst there would be the making of a small but
complete book, a tiny volume which, for the faithful, might well
become an object of adoration. There would even not be wanting
critics to declare, I foresaw, that the plan was a thing to be more
thankful for than the structure to have been reared on it. My
impatience for the structure, none the less, grew and grew with the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: "Madame," cried Raoul, "you rate my soul very low if you think me
capable of trafficking with my feelings, my affections. Rather than
commit such literary baseness, I would do as they do in England,--put
a rope round a woman's neck and sell her in the market."
"But I know Marie; she would like you to do it."
"She is incapable of liking it," said Raoul, vehemently.
"Oh! then you do know her well?"
Nathan laughed; he, the maker of scenes, to be trapped into playing
one himself!
"Comedy is no longer there," he said, nodding at the stage; "it is
here, in you."
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: comfort. But dredging, if you use a pleasure boat and the small
naturalist's dredge, is an amusement in which ladies, if they will,
may share, and which will increase, and not interfere with, the
amusements of a water-party.
The naturalist's dredge, of which Mr. Gosse's "Aquarium" gives a
detailed account, should differ from the common oyster dredge in
being smaller; certainly not more than four feet across the mouth;
and instead of having but one iron scraping-lip like the oyster
dredge, it should have two, one above and one below, so that it
will work equally well on whichsoever side it falls, or how often
soever it may be turned over by rough ground. The bag-net should
|
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 A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: finally announcing that it belonged to the green men
of Warhoon and that the cement was scarcely dry where it
had been walled up.
"They cannot be a day's march ahead of us," he exclaimed,
the light of battle leaping to his fierce face.
The work at the incubator was short indeed. The warriors
tore open the entrance and a couple of them, crawling
in, soon demolished all the eggs with their short-swords.
Then remounting we dashed back to join the cavalcade.
During the ride I took occasion to ask Tars Tarkas if these
Warhoons whose eggs we had destroyed were a smaller people
|
