| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: and the interest was momentarily increasing, it was observed with
consternation that the vessel was adrift and the anchor-cable hanging
limp from the bow. Then in the ship's dimmed and ancient log we
find this quaint note:
"In time it was discouvered yt ye troblesome passenger hadde gone
downe and got ye anchor, and toke ye same and solde it to ye dam
sauvages from ye interior, saying yt he hadde founde it, ye sonne
of a ghun!"
Yet this ancestor had good and noble instincts, and it is with
pride that we call to mind the fact that he was the first white
person who ever interested himself in the work of elevating
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: dark-eyed Mexican girl, Bonita, who had never been heard of since
that night she rode Stewart's big horse out of El Cajon. The
remembrance of her brought an idea. Perhaps Stewart had a
rendezvous in the mountains, and these lonely trips of his were
to meet Bonita. With the idea hot blood flamed into Madeline's
cheek. Then she was amazed at her own feelings--amazed because
her swiftest succeeding thought was to deny the idea--amazed that
its conception had fired her cheek with shame. Then her old
self, the one aloof from this red-blooded new self, gained
control over her emotions.
But Madeline found that new-born self a creature of strange power
The Light of Western Stars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: woman-like goddess or as a bird swimming in the sky sea. The
one conception has been productive of little else but horrors;
the other has given rise to a great variety of fanciful
creations, from the treacherous mermaid and the fiendish
nightmare to the gentle Undine, the charming Nausikaa, and the
stately Muse of classic antiquity.
[93] Baring-Gould, Book of Werewolves, p. 133.
We have seen that the original werewolf, howling in the wintry
blast, is a kind of psychopomp, or leader of departed souls;
he is the wild ancestor of the death-dog, whose voice under
the window of a sick-chamber is even now a sound of ill-omen.
Myths and Myth-Makers |
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 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of
the performance. When you told Mrs. Bennet this morning, that
if you ever resolved upon quitting Netherfield you should be
gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of panegyric, of
compliment to yourself-- and yet what is there so very laudable
in a precipitance which must leave very necessary business
undone, and can be of no real advantage to yourself or anyone
else?"
"Nay," cried Bingley, "this is too much, to remember at night all
the foolish things that were said in the morning. And, yet, upon
my honour, I believe what I said of myself to be true, and I
Pride and Prejudice |
