| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: impatience, as that is for BALLANTRAE. The scene of that romance
is Scotland - the States - Scotland - India - Scotland - and the
States again; so it jumps like a flea. I have enough about the
States now, and very much obliged I am; yet if Drake's TRAGEDIES OF
the WILDERNESS is (as I gather) a collection of originals, I should
like to purchase it. If it is a picturesque vulgarisation, I do
not wish to look it in the face. Purchase, I say; for I think it
would be well to have some such collection by me with a view to
fresh works. - Yours very sincerely,
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
P.S. - If you think of having the MASTER illustrated, I suggest
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: did not know themselves. But they loved each other so purely that the
impression of that scene, both cruel and beneficent, could not fail to
leave its traces in their souls; both were eager to make those traces
disappear, each striving to be the first to return to the other, and
thus they could not fail to think of the cause of their first
variance. To loving souls, this is not grief; pain is still far-off;
but it is a sort of mourning, which is difficult to depict. If there
are, indeed, relations between colors and the emotions of the soul,
if, as Locke's blind man said, scarlet produces on the sight the
effect produced upon the hearing by a blast of trumpets, it is
permissible to compare this reaction of melancholy to mourning tones
Ferragus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: the one to which she had just previously referred--
of the boy's happy capacity for an occasional slip.
"If Quint--on your remonstrance at the time you speak of--
was a base menial, one of the things Miles said to you,
I find myself guessing, was that you were another."
Again her admission was so adequate that I continued:
"And you forgave him that?"
"Wouldn't YOU?"
"Oh, yes!" And we exchanged there, in the stillness,
a sound of the oddest amusement. Then I went on:
"At all events, while he was with the 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 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: took up her work.
Prince Hippolyte, having brought the workbag, joined the circle
and moving a chair close to hers seated himself beside her.
Le charmant Hippolyte was surprising by his extraordinary
resemblance to his beautiful sister, but yet more by the fact that
in spite of this resemblance he was exceedingly ugly. His features
were like his sister's, but while in her case everything was lit up by
a joyous, self-satisfied, youthful, and constant smile of animation,
and by the wonderful classic beauty of her figure, his face on the
contrary was dulled by imbecility and a constant expression of
sullen self-confidence, while his body was thin and weak. His eyes,
War and Peace |
