| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: it. Some day, every man shall have his title to a share in the
world's great work and the world's large joy.
But meantime it is certain that, where there are a hundred poor
bodies who suffer from physical privation, there are a thousand poor
souls who suffer from spiritual poverty. To relive this greater
suffering there needs no change of laws, only a change of heart.
What does it profit a man to be the landed proprietor of countless
acres unless he can reap the harvest of delight that blooms from
every rood of God's earth for the seeing eye and the loving spirit?
And who can reap that harvest so closely that there shall not be
abundant gleaning left for all mankind? The most that a wide estate
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: "And then it'll go straight to the Professor," Sylvie added, "and you
won't be able to use it anymore: so you'd better use it all you can, now.
We must go small when the sun sets. Good-bye!"
"Good-bye!" cried Bruno. But their voices sounded very far away, and,
when I looked round, both children had disappeared.
"And it wants only two hours to sunset!" I said as I strolled on.
"I must make the best of my time!"
CHAPTER 23.
AN OUTLANDISH WATCH.
As I entered the little town, I came upon two of the fishermen's wives
interchanging that last word "which never was the last":
Sylvie and Bruno |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: the kettledrums which were generally beaten to assemble the people.
Not finding the sticks, which were kept by the drummer, they seized a
piece of wood and began to beat. The first to respond to the drum-beat
was the drummer, a tall man with but one eye, but a frightfully sleepy
one for all that.
"Who dares to beat the drum?" he shouted.
"Hold your tongue! take your sticks, and beat when you are ordered!"
replied the drunken men.
The drummer at once took from his pocket the sticks which he had
brought with him, well knowing the result of such proceedings. The
drum rattled, and soon black swarms of Cossacks began to collect like
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
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 Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: was heard, I believe, in Mecklenburg as late as 1790: "Den Edelman
wille wi dodschlagen." Then, in Wat Tyler's insurrections, in
Munster Anabaptisms, in Jacqueries, they proved themselves to be
masses, if nothing better, striking for awhile, by the mere weight
of numbers, blows terrible, though aimless--soon to be dispersed and
slain in their turn by a disciplined and compact aristocracy. Yet
not always dispersed, if they could find a leader; as the Polish
nobles discovered to their cost in the middle of the seventeenth
century. Then Bogdan the Cossack, a wild warrior, not without his
sins, but having deserved well of James Sobieski and the Poles,
found that the neighbouring noble's steward had taken a fancy to his
|
