| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: disclaiming any thought of flattery, turned off to other
subjects, and held her all through the wood in conversation,
addressing her with an air of perfect sincerity, and
listening to her answers with every mark of interest. Had
open flattery continued, Nance would have soon found refuge
in good sense; but the more subtle lure she could not
suspect, much less avoid. It was the first time she had ever
taken part in a conversation illuminated by any ideas. All
was then true that she had heard and dreamed of gentlemen;
they were a race apart, like deities knowing good and evil.
And then there burst upon her soul a divine thought, hope's
|
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 War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: seems to me that Carver's suggestions as to the reason of
the rapid death of the Martians is so probable as to be
regarded almost as a proven conclusion. I have assumed
that in the body of my narrative.
At any rate, in all the bodies of the Martians that were
examined after the war, no bacteria except those already
known as terrestrial species were found. That they did not
bury any of their dead, and the reckless slaughter they per-
petrated, point also to an entire ignorance of the putrefactive
process. But probable as this seems, it is by no means a
proven conclusion.
War of the Worlds |
