| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: which, as the name implies, follow, in becoming Japanese inversion,
instead of preceding the word they affect. To make up, nevertheless,
for any lack of perplexity due to an absence of inflections,
adjectives, en revanche, are most elaborately conjugated. Their
protean shapes are as long as they are numerous, representing not
only times, but conditions. There are, for instance, the root form,
the adverbial form, the indefinite form, the attributive form, and
the conclusive form, the two last being conjugated through all the
various voices, moods, and tenses, to say nothing of all the
potential forms. As one change is superposed on another, the
adjective ends by becoming three or four times its original length.
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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 Odyssey by Homer: his sister is being married. She having been properly attended
to, Megapenthes might as well be married at the same time.
Hermione could not now be less than thirty.
I have dealt with this passage somewhat more fully in my
"Authoress of the Odyssey", p.136-138. See also p. 256 of the
same book.
{37} Sparta and Lacedaemon are here treated as two different
places, though in other parts of the poem it is clear that the
writer understands them as one. The catalogue in the "Iliad,"
which the writer is here presumably following, makes the same
mistake ("Il." ii. 581,582)
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: great that dwell amongst them, but when they get any children they
be as little as the pigmies. And therefore they be, all for the
most part, all pigmies; for the nature of the land is such. The
great Chan let keep this city full well, for it is his. And
albeit, that the pigmies be little, yet they be full reasonable
after their age, and can both wit and good and malice enough.
From that city go men by the country by many cities and many towns
unto a city that men clepe Jamchay; and it is a noble city and a
rich and of great profit to the Lord, and thither go men to seek
merchandise of all manner of thing. That city is full much worth
yearly to the lord of the country. For he hath every year to rent
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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 Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: from being in the full possession either of his mental or bodily
powers. From his vague expressions and disordered pulse, Elspat
at first experienced much apprehension; but she used such
expedients as her medical knowledge suggested, and in the course
of the night she had the satisfaction to see him sink once more
into a deep sleep, which probably carried off the greater part of
the effects of the drug, for about sunrising she heard him arise,
and call to her for his bonnet. This she had purposely removed,
from a fear that he might awaken and depart in the night-time,
without her knowledge.
"My bonnet--my bonnet," cried Hamish; "it is time to take
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