| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: perhaps, tinged with blood,--that secret abomination, above which,
possibly, he may say his prayers, without remembering it,--is this
man's miserable soul!
To apply this train of remark somewhat more closely to Judge
Pyncheon. We might say (without in the least imputing crime to
a personage of his eminent respectability) that there was enough
of splendid rubbish in his life to cover up and paralyze a more
active and subtile conscience than the Judge was ever troubled
with. The purity of his judicial character, while on the bench;
the faithfulness of his public service in subsequent capacities;
his devotedness to his party, and the rigid consistency with which
House of Seven Gables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: other.
Just here the blast of a toy tin trumpet came faintly
down the green aisles of the forest. Tom flung off his
jacket and trousers, turned a suspender into a belt,
raked away some brush behind the rotten log, dis-
closing a rude bow and arrow, a lath sword and a tin
trumpet, and in a moment had seized these things
and bounded away, barelegged, with fluttering shirt.
He presently halted under a great elm, blew an answer-
ing blast, and then began to tiptoe and look warily out,
this way and that. He said cautiously -- to an imag-
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: it loses its symbolic meaning and stands merely for one of a number
indicating time, or, if incense, curds, or saffron be sent also,
place. The message ran then:--"A widow dhak flower and bhusa--at
eleven o'clock." The pinch of bhusa enlightened Trejago. He saw--
this kind of letter leaves much to instinctive knowledge--that the
bhusa referred to the big heap of cattle-food over which he had
fallen in Amir Nath's Gully, and that the message must come from the
person behind the grating; she being a widow. So the message ran
then:--"A widow, in the Gully in which is the heap of bhusa, desires
you to come at eleven o'clock."
Trejago threw all the rubbish into the fireplace and laughed. He
|
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 Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: sake did he expose himself to the direst perils? His blood flowed, his
wounds were healed for you alone. The mighty spirit, that upheld you all,
a dungeon now confines, while the horrors of secret murder are hovering
around. Perhaps he thinks of you--perhaps he hopes in you,--he who has
been accustomed only to grant favours to others and to fulfil their prayers.
Carpenter. Come, gossip.
Clara. I have neither the arms, nor the vigour of a man; but I have that
which ye all lack--courage and contempt of danger. O that my breath
could kindle your souls! That, pressing you to this bosom, I could arouse
and animate you! Come! I will march in your midst!--As a waving banner,
though weaponless, leads on a gallant army of warriors, so shall my spirit
Egmont |
