| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: those "advantages" which he envied for himself. He followed
at heel; his laugh was ready chorus; our friends gave him the
nickname of "The Henchman." It was in this insidious form
that servitude approached me.
Pinkerton and I read and re-read the famous news: he, I can
swear, with an enjoyment as unalloyed and far more vocal than
my own. The statue was nearly done: a few days' work sufficed
to prepare it for exhibition; the master was approached; he gave
his consent; and one cloudless morning of May beheld us
gathered in my studio for the hour of trial. The master wore his
many-hued rosette; he came attended by two of my French
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: to be the most consummate of rhetoricians (compare Menexenus).
The last of the six discourses begins with a short argument which
overthrows not only Agathon but all the preceding speakers by the help of a
distinction which has escaped them. Extravagant praises have been ascribed
to Love as the author of every good; no sort of encomium was too high for
him, whether deserved and true or not. But Socrates has no talent for
speaking anything but the truth, and if he is to speak the truth of Love he
must honestly confess that he is not a good at all: for love is of the
good, and no man can desire that which he has. This piece of dialectics is
ascribed to Diotima, who has already urged upon Socrates the argument which
he urges against Agathon. That the distinction is a fallacy is obvious; it
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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 Young Forester by Zane Grey: and my journey.
It was about ten o'clock when Hal jogged into a broad trail on the
outskirts of Holston. A gray flat lay before me, on the other side of which
began the slow rise of the slope. I could hardly contain myself. I wanted
to run the mustang, but did not for the sake of the burdened pony. That
sage-flat was miles wide, though it seemed so narrow. The back of the lower
slope began to change to a dark green, which told me I was surely getting
closer to the mountains, even if it did not seem so. The trail began to
rise, and at last I reached the first pine-trees. They were a
disappointment to me, being no larger than many of the white oaks at home,
and stunted, with ragged dead tops. They proved to me that trees isolated
The Young Forester |
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 Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: nothing incriminating in what you say. She saw me as a fugitive,
and she sent me a warning. That's all."
"Easy, easy, old man. I'm not pinning anything on her. But I want,
if you don't mind, to carry this through. I have every reason to
believe that, some time before you got to Norada, the Thorwald woman
was on my trail. I know that I was followed to the cabin the night
I stayed there, and that she got a saddle horse from her son that
night, her son by Thorwald, either for herself or some one else."
"All right. I accept that, tentatively."
"That means that she knew I was coming to Norada. Think a minute;
I'd kept my movements quiet, but Beverly Carlysle knew, and her
The Breaking Point |
