| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: IV. THE TRAMPS - Now long enough had day endured
V. THE FOOLHARDY GEOGRAPHER - The howling desert miles around
VI. THE ANGLER AND THE CLOWN - The echoing bridge you here may
see
MORAL TALES
I. ROBIN AND BEN: OR, THE PIRATE AND THE APOTHECARY - Come, lend
me an attentive ear
II. THE BUILDER'S DOOM - In eighteen-twenty Deacon Thin
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NOT I, AND OTHER POEMS
Poem: NOT I
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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 Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: more than it tortured the teller of the tale. It filled him with
shame and horror. For three or four years every detail of that
circumstantial narrative seemed unforgettable. A little lapse from
perfect health and the obsession returned. He could not endure the
neighing of horses: when he saw horses galloping in a field with him
his heart stood still. And all his life thereafter he hated horses.
6
A different sort of fear that also greatly afflicted Benham was due
to a certain clumsiness and insecurity he felt in giddy and unstable
places. There he was more definitely balanced between the
hopelessly rash and the pitifully discreet.
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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 Paz by Honore de Balzac: solitude of "super flumina Babylonis," or else they haunted a few
salons which were the neutral ground of all opinions. In a city of
pleasure, like Paris, where amusements abound on all sides, the
heedless gayety of a Pole finds twice as many encouragements as it
needs to a life of dissipation.
It must be said, however, that Adam had two points against him,--his
appearance, and his mental equipment. There are two species of Pole,
as there are two species of Englishwoman. When an Englishwoman is not
very handsome she is horribly ugly. Comte Adam belonged in the second
category of human beings. His small face, rather sharp in expression,
looked as if it had been pressed in a vise. His short nose, and fair
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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 Vailima Prayers & Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson: the long days in which we have been served, not according to our
deserts, but our desires; on the pit and the miry clay, the
blackness of despair, the horror of misconduct, from which our feet
have been plucked out. For our sins forgiven or prevented, for our
shame unpublished, we bless and thank Thee, O God. Help us yet
again and ever. So order events, so strengthen our frailty, as
that day by day we shall come before Thee with this song of
gratitude, and in the end we be dismissed with honour. In their
weakness and their fear, the vessels of thy handiwork so pray to
Thee, so praise Thee. Amen.
SUNDAY
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