| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: went boldly on to make war. The Grasshopper with his cousin, the
Dragon Fly, went foremost. They reached a marshy place, and the
mire was very deep. As they waded through the mud, the
Grasshopper's legs stuck, and he pulled them off! He crawled upon
a log and wept, "You see me, brothers, I cannot go!"
The Dragon Fly went on, weeping for his cousin. He would not
be comforted, for he loved his cousin dearly. The more he grieved,
the louder he cried, till his body shook with great violence. He
blew his red swollen nose with a loud noise so that his head came
off his slender neck, and he was fallen upon the grass.
"You see how it is, said the Fish, lashing his tail
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: acter, and one which Tolstoy never wearied of
emphasising--describing, with the simple pathos
of which he was master, the moujik inured to his
own privations but pitiful to his horse, shielding
him from the storm with his own coat, or saving
him from starvation with his own meagre ration;
and mindful of him even in his prayers, invoking,
like Plato, the blessings of Florus and Laura, pa-
tron saints of horses, because "one mustn't forget
the animals."
The characteristics of a people so embedded in
The Forged Coupon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: himself with his master.
This individual was a mulatto, who would assuredly have given Talma a
model for the part of Othello, if he had come across him. Never did
any African face better express the grand vengefulness, the ready
suspicion, the promptitude in the execution of a thought, the strength
of the Moor, and his childish lack of reflection. His black eyes had
the fixity of the eyes of a bird of prey, and they were framed, like a
vulture's, by a bluish membrane devoid of lashes. His forehead, low
and narrow, had something menacing. Evidently, this man was under the
yoke of some single and unique thought. His sinewy arm did not belong
to him.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
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 The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: the foolish lands where they would realize the dull chimera of
equality. Let us go to the country where one lives in the midst of a
nation of slaves, where the sun shines ever on a palace which is
always white, where the air sheds perfumes, the birds sing of love and
where, when one can love no more, one dies. . . ."
"And where one dies together!" said Paquita. "But do not let us start
to-morrow, let us start this moment . . . take Cristemio."
"Faith! pleasure is the fairest climax of life. Let us go to Asia; but
to start, my child, one needs much gold, and to have gold one must set
one's affairs in order."
She understood no part of these ideas.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
