| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: wondering what they would all say to her. Laurie was in a flutter
of excitement at the idea of having company, and flew about to get
ready, for as Mrs. March said, he was `a little gentleman'. and did
honor to the coming guest by brushing his curly pate, putting on a
fresh color, and trying tidy up the room, which in spite of half a
dozen servants, was anything but neat. Presently there came a loud
ring, than a decided voice, asking for `Mr. laurie', and a surprised-
looking servant came running up to announce a young lady.
"All right, show her up, it's Miss Jo, "said Laurie, going to the
door of his little parlor to meet Jo, who appeared, looking rosy and
quite at her ease, with a covered dish in one hand and Beth's three
Little Women |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: ape to Hazlitt, to Lamb, to Wordsworth, to Sir Thomas Browne, to
Defoe, to Hawthorne, to Montaigne, to Baudelaire and to Obermann.
I remember one of these monkey tricks, which was called THE VANITY
OF MORALS: it was to have had a second part, THE VANITY OF
KNOWLEDGE; and as I had neither morality nor scholarship, the names
were apt; but the second part was never attempted, and the first
part was written (which is my reason for recalling it, ghost-like,
from its ashes) no less than three times: first in the manner of
Hazlitt, second in the manner of Ruskin, who had cast on me a
passing spell, and third, in a laborious pasticcio of Sir Thomas
Browne. So with my other works: CAIN, an epic, was (save the
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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 Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the white man makes, with ammunition enough to last you a year.
All I ask is that you guide me within sight of the party
that pursues Ninaka; then you may leave me and tell
no one what you have done, nor will I tell any. What say you?"
The two natives consulted together in low tones.
At last they drew nearer the shore.
"Will you give us each a bracelet of brass as well as
the rifles?" asked the spokesman.
Von Horn hesitated. He knew the native nature well.
To have acquiesced too readily would have been to have
invited still further demands from them.
The Monster Men |
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 Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: which was in my mind, the more absolute because without proofs that
one could produce?
The last expression of Rose's distress rang again in my ears:
"Madame has no friends. Not one!" and I saw Dona Rita's complete
loneliness beset by all sorts of insincerities, surrounded by
pitfalls; her greatest dangers within herself, in her generosity,
in her fears, in her courage, too. What I had to do first of all
was to stop that wretch at all costs. I became aware of a great
mistrust of Therese. I didn't want her to find me in the hall, but
I was reluctant to go upstairs to my rooms from an unreasonable
feeling that there I would be too much out of the way; not
The Arrow of Gold |
