| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: of vocal music, such as it was in the golden age of Palestrina
and Orlando Lasso.
We are not inclined to deny that in structural beauty--in the
symmetrical disposition and elaboration of musical themes--the
symphony has the advantage. The words, which in the oratorio
serve to give definite direction to the currents of emotion, may
also sometimes hamper the free development of the pure musical
conception, just as in psychical life the obtrusive entrance of
ideas linked by association may hinder the full fruition of some
emotional state. Nevertheless, in spite of this possible
drawback, it may be doubted if the higher forms of polyphonic
 The Unseen World and Other Essays |
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 Call of the Wild by Jack London: his neck, till he whimpered low and suppressedly, or growled
softly, and the half-breed cook shouted at him, "Hey, you Buck,
wake up!" Whereupon the other world would vanish and the real
world come into his eyes, and he would get up and yawn and stretch
as though he had been asleep.
It was a hard trip, with the mail behind them, and the heavy work
wore them down. They were short of weight and in poor condition
when they made Dawson, and should have had a ten days' or a week's
rest at least. But in two days' time they dropped down the Yukon
bank from the Barracks, loaded with letters for the outside. The
dogs were tired, the drivers grumbling, and to make matters worse,
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