| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: Johnson was a foil to her fair beauty; she glowed in that poor
place, fair as a star; until even I, who was not usually of her
admirers, caught a spark of admiration; and even the captain,
who was in no courtly humour, proposed that the scene should
be commemorated by my pencil. It was the last act of the
evening. Hurriedly as I went about my task, the half-hour had
lengthened out to more than three before it was completed:
Mamie in full value, the rest of the party figuring in outline
only, and the artist himself introduced in a back view, which
was pronounced a likeness. But it was to Mamie that I devoted
the best of my attention; and it was with her I made my chief
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: sacrificing to idols, and worshipping the sun, moon, and stars, or
all the host of heaven; and not only so, but were, of all the
heathens and pagans that ever I met with, the most barbarous,
except only that they did not eat men's flesh.
Some instances of this we met with in the country between Arguna,
where we enter the Muscovite dominions, and a city of Tartars and
Russians together, called Nortziousky, in which is a continued
desert or forest, which cost us twenty days to travel over. In a
village near the last of these places I had the curiosity to go and
see their way of living, which is most brutish and unsufferable.
They had, I suppose, a great sacrifice that day; for there stood
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: I'll find him there, all right."
A few minutes later Alvarita stopped upon the forward platform, ready
for her quest. Her handsome black skirt was shaped to the most recent
proclamation of fashion. Her spotless shirt-waist gladdened the eye in
that desert of sunshine, a swelling oasis, cool and fresh. A man's
split-straw hat sat firmly on her coiled, abundant hair. Beneath her
serene, round, impudent chin a man's four-in-hand tie was jauntily
knotted about a man's high, stiff collar. A parasol she carried, of
white silk, and its fringe was lace, yellowly genuine.
I will grant Gallipolis as to her costume, but firmly to Seville or
Valladolid I am held by her eyes; castanets, balconies, mantillas,
Heart of the West |
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 Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: the bright eyes which accompanied the words of this young,
beautiful, and well-dressed woman.
Nekhludoff looked at her in silence, and could not take his eyes
from her face.
"You think I do not understand you and all that goes on in you.
Why, everybody knows what you are doing. C'est le secret de
polichinelle. And I am delighted with your work, and think highly
of you."
"Really, there is nothing to be delighted with; and I have done
so little as Yet."
"No matter. I understand your feelings, and I understand her.
Resurrection |
