| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: "I think it would have been better to tell me. It's awful to find such a thing
out suddenly about dogs you've trusted, and to think how good and gentle they
look when they come and put their heads in your lap to be petted, just as
though they would not hurt a fly; but then, of course, anyone who has eyes
knows that they do lure flies, snapping at them all day long, and just for the
fun of it too, not because they need them for food, as birds do. Mamma, I
don't believe there's anything meaner than a Laverack setter. Still, Tadjie
would never have done such a thing, I know." Mrs. Gerald was silent, and
Tattine, expecting her to confirm what she had said, grew a little suspicious.
"Would Tadjie, Mamma?" with a directness that would not admit of indirectness.
"Yes, Tattine; Tadjie would. She was trained to hunt before ever she was given
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: having been widened about forty years ago, the front gable was
now precisely on a line with it. On either side extended a ruinous
wooden fence of open lattice-work, through which could be seen
a grassy yard, and, especially in the angles of the building,
an enormous fertility of burdocks, with leaves, it is hardly an
exaggeration to say, two or three feet long. Behind the house
there appeared to be a garden, which undoubtedly had once been
extensive, but was now infringed upon by other enclosures, or shut
in by habitations and outbuildings that stood on another street.
It would be an omission, trifling, indeed, but unpardonable,
were we to forget the green moss that had long since gathered
House of Seven Gables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: look upon time was as a transient flash of the eye now
and then: that projection of consciousness into days
gone by and to come, which makes the past a synonym
for the pathetic and the future a word for circum-
spection, was foreign to Troy. With him the past
was yesterday; the future, to-morrow; never, the day
after.
On this account he might, in certain lights, have
been regarded as one of the most fortunate of his
order. For it may be argued with great plausibility
that reminiscence is less an endowment than a disease,
Far From the Madding Crowd |
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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: me to laugh at him, uttered a prolonged groan, and became so silent that
I thought he must be dead. However, the sailor who brought me my
food--such food!--assured me that this was not so, and lashed him tight
to the legs of the bunk by his arm and ankle so as to prevent him from
being rolled to bits.
Next morning Hans was dosed with brandy, which, in his empty condition,
made him extremely drunk, and from that time forward began to take a
more cheerful view of things. Especially was this so when the hours for
the "brandy medicine" came round. Hans, like most other Hottentots,
loved spirits, and would put up with much to get them, even with my
father's fiery indignation.
Marie |
