| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: the old folks, they pray for the advantage o' bein' a little
different."
"I ain't heard of a copy-cat this great many years," said Mrs.
Fosdick, laughing; "'twas a favorite term o' my grandfather's. No,
I wa'n't thinking o' those things, but of them strange straying
creatur's that used to rove the country. You don't see them now,
or the ones that used to hive away in their own houses with some
strange notion or other."
I thought again of Captain Littlepage, but my companions were
not reminded of his name; and there was brother William at Green
Island, whom we all three knew.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: from Aristocracy to Democracy without considering that we were at
the same time changing, as regards our governing class, from
Selection to Promiscuity. Those who have taken a practical part
in modern politics best know how farcical the result is.
The most inevitable dramatic conception, then, of the nineteenth
century, is that of a perfectly naive hero upsetting religion,
law and order in all directions, and establishing in their place
the unfettered action of Humanity doing exactly what it likes,
and producing order instead of confusion thereby because it likes
to do what is necessary for the good of the race. This
conception, already incipient in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: old age, and leave thee, as is most meet, to succeed me in my
kingdom, but thou wast not ashamed to play against me the part of
a relentless foe. And shouldst thou not rather have listened to
me, and followed my injunctions, than have obeyed the idle and
foolish pratings of that crafty old knave, who taught thee to
choose a sour life instead of a sweet, and abandon the charms of
dalliance, to tread the hard and rough road, which the Son of
Mary ordereth men to go? Dost thou not fear the displeasure of
the most puissant gods, lest they strike thee with lightning, or
quell thee with thunderbolt, or overwhelm thee in the yawning
earth, because thou hast rejected and scorned those deities that
|
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 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: of his eye.
Grey-headed men, wonderfully pathetic in their dissipation,
stared at her through clouds. Smooth-cheeked boys, some of them
with faces of stone and mouths of sin, not nearly so pathetic as
the grey heads, tried to find the girl's eyes in the smoke wreaths.
Maggie considered she was not what they thought her. She confined
her glances to Pete and the stage.
The orchestra played negro melodies and a versatile drummer
pounded, whacked, clattered and scratched on a dozen machines to
make noise.
Those glances of the men, shot at Maggie from under half-closed lids,
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
