| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: stripped, it may be, of its picturesque quaintness, but with all its
bold disregard of historical truth, and its moral teachings approved
by religion--a myth, the blossom of imaginative fancy; an allegory
that the wise may interpret to suit themselves. To each his own
pasturage, and the task of separating the tares from the wheat.
The boat that served to carry passengers from the Island of Cadzand to
Ostend was upon the point of departure; but before the skipper loosed
the chain that secured the shallop to the little jetty, where people
embarked, he blew a horn several times, to warn late lingerers, this
being his last journey that day. Night was falling. It was scarcely
possible to see the coast of Flanders by the dying fires of the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: Tono-Bungay. It was a big, rather gaunt villa, with a
conservatory and a shrubbery, a tennis-lawn, a quite
considerable vegetable garden, and a small disused coach-house.
I had some glimpses of the excitements of its inauguration, but
not many because of the estrangement between my aunt and Marion.
My aunt went into that house with considerable zest, and my uncle
distinguished himself by the thoroughness with which he did the
repainting and replumbing. He had all the drains up and most of
the garden with them, and stood administrative on
heaps--administrating whisky to the workmen. I found him there
one day, most Napoleonic, on a little Elba of dirt, in an
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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 Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: Snore the death-rattle of the walrus, O struggling
sleeper, snore!
Snore me ----
But I was compelled to leave. There is a great
deal of it, Fothergil says. If you know Fothergil
you are aware that when he declaims his Virile
verses he becomes excited; he swells physically;
sometimes he looks quite five feet tall in his mo-
ments of expansion; all this is very bad for him.
More than once the declamation of his poem, "My-
self and the Cosmic Urge," has sent him shaking
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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 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: pail in his hand and under his arm a brown truckman's apron done in
a bundle. "What deh hell's wrong?" he demanded.
"Come out, all of yehs, come out," his mother was howling.
"Come ahn an' I'll stamp her damn brains under me feet."
"Shet yer face, an' come home, yeh damned old fool," roared
Jimmie at her. She strided up to him and twirled her fingers in
his face. Her eyes were darting flames of unreasoning rage and her
frame trembled with eagerness for a fight.
"T'hell wid yehs! An' who deh hell are yehs? I ain't givin' a snap
of me fingers fer yehs," she bawled at him. She turned her huge back
in tremendous disdain and climbed the stairs to the next floor.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
