| 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: Particularly potent with these people is their language, for a
reason that also lends it additional interest to us,--because it is
their own. Among the mass of foreign thought the Japanese
imitativeness has caused the nation to adopt, here is one thing
which is indigenous. Half of the present speech, it is true, is of
Chinese importation, but conservatism has kept the other half pure.
From what it reveals we can see how each man starts to-day with the
same impersonal outlook upon life the race had reached centuries
ago, and which it has since kept unchanged. The man's mind has done
likewise.
Footnote to Chapter 4
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: and roast and eat it; for so some writers have related. But
Tiro, Cicero's emancipated slave, has not so much as mentioned
the treachery of Philologus.
Some long time after, Caesar, I have been told, visiting one of
his daughter's sons, found him with a book of Cicero's in his
hand. The boy for fear endeavored to hide it under his gown;
which Caesar perceiving, took it from him, and turning over a
great part of the book standing, gave it him again, and said,
"My child, this was a learned man, and a lover of his country."
And immediately after he had vanquished Antony, being then
consul, he made Cicero's son his colleague in the office; and
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: always notice stage directions, because they fret me and keep me
trying to get out of their way, just as the automobiles do. At
first; then by and by they become monotonous and I get run over.
Mr. Howells has done much work, and the spirit of it is as
beautiful as the make of it. I have held him in admiration and
affection so many years that I know by the number of those years
that he is old now; but his heart isn't, nor his pen; and years
do not count. Let him have plenty of them; there is profit in
them for us.
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ENGLISH AS SHE IS TAUGHT
What is Man? |
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 Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: recalled by the screams of Violet and Peony, and the rapping of a
thimbled finger against the parlor window.
"Husband! husband!" cried his wife, showing her horror-stricken
face through the window-panes. "There is no need of going for the
child's parents!"
"We told you so, father!" screamed Violet and Peony, as he
re-entered the parlor. "You would bring her in; and now our
poor--dear-beau-ti-ful little snow-sister is thawed!"
And their own sweet little faces were already dissolved in tears;
so that their father, seeing what strange things occasionally
happen in this every-day world, felt not a little anxious lest
The Snow Image |
