| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: much caution, for the wind made noise enough to kill any other sound.
Amster called to Muller, he had found a loose picket, and his strong
young arms had torn it out easily. Muller motioned to the other
three to join them. A moment later they were all in the garden,
walking carefully toward the house.
The door was closed but there were no bars at the windows of the
ground floor. Amster looked inquiringly at the commissioner and
the latter nodded and said, "All right, go ahead."
The next minute Amster had broken in through one pane of the window
and turned the latch. The inner window was broken already so that
it was not difficult for him to open it without any further noise.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: of tentacles suddenly reaching up from below, from out the dark
beneath his feet, coiling around his throat, throttling him,
strangling him, sucking his blood. For a moment he thought of
the courts, but instantly laughed at the idea. What court was
immune from the power of the monster? Ah, the rage of
helplessness, the fury of impotence! No help, no hope,--ruined
in a brief instant--he a veritable giant, built of great sinews,
powerful, in the full tide of his manhood, having all his health,
all his wits. How could he now face his home? How could he tell
his mother of this catastrophe? And Sidney--the little tad; how
could he explain to her this wretchedness--how soften her
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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 The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: und singt dazu, singt betrunken und hymnisch wie Dmitri Karamasoff sang.
Ueber diese Lieder lacht der Bürger beleidigt, der Heilige
und Seher hört sie mit Tränen.
401. 'Datta, dayadhvam, damyata' (Give, sympathize,
control). The fable of the meaning of the Thunder is found
in the _Brihadaranyaka--Upanishad_, 5, 1. A translation is found
in Deussen's _Sechzig Upanishads des Veda_, p. 489.
407. Cf. Webster, _The White Devil_, v. vi:
. . . they'll remarry
Ere the worm pierce your winding-sheet, ere the spider
Make a thin curtain for your epitaphs.
The Waste Land |
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 Bucolics by Virgil: MENALCAS
With thieves so daring, what can masters do?
Did I not see you, rogue, in ambush lie
For Damon's goat, while loud Lycisca barked?
And when I cried, "Where is he off to now?
Gather your flock together, Tityrus,"
You hid behind the sedges.
DAMOETAS
Well, was he
Whom I had conquered still to keep the goat.
Which in the piping-match my pipe had won!
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