| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: with rain; while the drivers, in enormous boots,
splashed through the mud beside the sledges. All
this, the very horses themselves, seemed to me
stimulating and fascinating, full of suggestion.
"When I approached the field near their house,
I saw at one end of it, in the direction of the pa-
rade ground, something very huge and black, and
I heard sounds of fife and drum proceeding from
it. My heart had been full of song, and I had
heard in imagination the tune of the mazurka,
but this was very harsh music. It was not pleas-
The Forged Coupon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: an apathy which resembled the sleep that precedes death. Soon they
were obliged to sell their jewels. Poverty appeared to them suddenly,
--not hideous, but plainly clothed, almost easy to endure; its voice
had nothing terrifying; with it came neither spectres, nor despair,
nor rags; but it made them lose the memory and the habits of comfort;
it dried the springs of pride. Then, before they knew it, came want,--
want in all its horror, indifferent to its rags, treading underfoot
all human sentiments.
Seven or eight months after the birth of the little Bartolomeo, it
would have been hard to see in the mother who suckled her sickly babe
the original of the beautiful portrait, the sole remaining ornament of
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: before it, and before it every head be bent? Would you, the white men of
England, submit to its rule for one day?"
"Ah," said Peter, "no, of course we shouldn't, but we are white men, and so
are the Armenians--almost--" Then he glanced at the stranger's dark face,
and added quickly, "At least, it's not the colour that matters, you know.
I rather like a dark face, my mother's eyes are brown--but the Armenians,
you know, they've got long hair like us."
"Oh, it is the hair, then, that matters," said the stranger softly.
"Oh, well," said Peter, "it's not altogether, of course. But it's quite a
different thing, the Armenians wanting to get rid of the Turks, and these
bloody niggers wanting to get rid of the Chartered Company. Besides, the
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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 Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: matter with you? Anybody hurt you?"
"No -- nobody hurt me," panted the other,-- "only... Ah! -- aa!"
"-- Only scared you?" queried the peddler, unsympathetically. "Robbers?"
"Not robbers,-- not robbers," gasped the terrified man... "I saw... I saw
a woman -- by the moat; -- and she showed me... Ah! I cannot tell you what
she showed me!"...
"He! (4) Was it anything like THIS that she showed you?" cried the
soba-man, stroking his own face --which therewith became like unto an
Egg... And, simultaneously, the light went out.
ROKURO-KUBI
Nearly five hundred years ago there was a samurai, named Isogai
Kwaidan |
