| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: of the cross "lights."
No. II. was written after seeing Miss Ellen Terry perform in the
play of "Hamlet." In this case the first stanza describes the two
main words.
No. III. was written after seeing Miss Marion Terry perform in Mr.
Gilbert's play of "Pygmalion and Galatea." The three stanzas
respectively describe "My First," "My Second," and "My Whole."]
I
THERE was an ancient City, stricken down
With a strange frenzy, and for many a day
They paced from morn to eve the crowded town,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White: The nearest cattle were some distance ahead, and trotting along
at a good gait. As they had not yet discovered the chance left
open by unforeseen circumstance, I descended and took in on my
cinch while yet there was time. Even as I mounted, an impatient
movement on the part of experienced Brown Jug told me that the
cattle had seen their opportunity.
I gathered the reins and spoke to the horse. He needed no
further direction, but set off at a wide angle, nicely
calculated, to intercept the truants. Brown Jug was a powerful
beast. The spring of his leap was as whalebone. The yellow
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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 Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: just witnessed, and which she could only have been induced to
make by her excessive love for me. Still, however, I could not
help thinking she had gone rather too far. I reproached her with
what I called her indiscretion. She told me that my rival, after
having besieged her for several days in the Bois de Boulogne, and
having made her comprehend his object by signs and grimaces, had
actually made an open declaration of love; informing her at the
same time of his name and all his titles, by means of a letter,
which he had sent through the hands of the coachman who drove her
and her companions; that he had promised her, on the other side
of the Alps, a brilliant fortune and eternal adoration; that she
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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 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: provoked, and most determined to press a city to rubbish, orders
the island to descend with great gentleness, out of a pretence of
tenderness to his people, but, indeed, for fear of breaking the
adamantine bottom; in which case, it is the opinion of all their
philosophers, that the loadstone could no longer hold it up, and
the whole mass would fall to the ground.
By a fundamental law of this realm, neither the king, nor either
of his two eldest sons, are permitted to leave the island; nor
the queen, till she is past child-bearing.
CHAPTER IV.
[The author leaves Laputa; is conveyed to Balnibarbi; arrives at
Gulliver's Travels |
