| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: it; and why, when it is made, it should afford us so complete
a pleasure. From the arrangement of according letters, which
is altogether arabesque and sensual, up to the architecture
of the elegant and pregnant sentence, which is a vigorous act
of the pure intellect, there is scarce a faculty in man but
has been exercised. We need not wonder, then, if perfect
sentences are rare, and perfect pages rarer.
CHAPTER II - THE MORALITY OF THE PROFESSION OF LETTERS (11)
THE profession of letters has been lately debated in the
public prints; and it has been debated, to put the matter
mildly, from a point of view that was calculated to surprise
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: Irkutsk in that way."
The governor-general confirmed this assertion.
"It is a fortunate circumstance," responded the Grand
Duke. "Nevertheless, we must hold ourselves ready for
any emergency."
He then, turning towards the head of the police, asked,
"Have you nothing to say to me, sir?"
"I have your Highness," answered the head of police, "a
petition which is addressed to you through me."
"Addressed by whom?"
"By the Siberian exiles, whom, as your Highness knows,
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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 At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: limb from limb--like that," and I jumped toward the great
brute with a loud "Boo!" that sent him stumbling backward.
I took a long chance, I realized, but if we could make
any capital out of Perry's harmless mania I wanted to make
it while the making was prime. It worked splendidly.
The Sagoths treated us both with marked respect during
the balance of the journey, and then passed the word along
to their masters, the Mahars.
Two marches after this episode we came to the city of Phutra.
The entrance to it was marked by two lofty towers of granite,
which guarded a flight of steps leading to the buried city.
At the Earth's Core |
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 Youth by Joseph Conrad: mostly they had. Was it the two pounds ten a month
that sent them there? They didn't think their pay half
good enough. No; it was something in them, something
inborn and subtle and everlasting. I don't say posi-
tively that the crew of a French or German merchant-
man wouldn't have done it, but I doubt whether it would
have been done in the same way. There was a complete-
ness in it, something solid like a principle, and masterful
like an instinct--a disclosure of something secret--of
that hidden something, that gift, of good or evil that
makes racial difference, that shapes the fate of nations.
Youth |
