The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: difficulty. Southampton became at a very early age the lover of
Elizabeth Vernon, so he needed no entreaties to marry; he was not
beautiful; he did not resemble his mother, as Mr. W. H. did -
Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
and, above all, his Christian name was Henry, whereas the punning
sonnets (CXXXV. and CXLIII.) show that the Christian name of
Shakespeare's friend was the same as his own - WILL.
'As for the other suggestions of unfortunate commentators, that Mr.
W. H. is a misprint for Mr. W. S., meaning Mr. William Shakespeare;
that "Mr. W. H. all" should be read "Mr. W. Hall"; that Mr. W. H.
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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 The Virginian by Owen Wister: It was to get over for a ride with you about now or sooner. This
year Spring is early. The snow is off the flats this side the
range and where the sun gets a chance to hit the earth strong all
day it is green and has flowers too, a good many. You can see
them bob and mix together in the wind. The quaking-asps down low
on the South side are in small leaf and will soon be twinkling
like the flowers do now. I had planned to take a look at this
with you and that was a better plan than what I have got to do.
The water is high but I could have got over and as for the snow
on top of the mountain a man told me nobody could cross it for a
week yet, because he had just done it himself. Was not he a funny
The Virginian |