| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: and firm Providence would never permit the race of man to discover
them. It would rob life of one of its principal attractions, and
make fishing altogether too easy to be interesting.
Fisherman's luck is so notorious that it has passed into a proverb.
But the fault with that familiar saying is that it is too short and
too narrow to cover half the variations of the angler's possible
experience. For if his luck should be bad, there is no portion of
his anatomy, from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet,
that may not be thoroughly wet. But if it should be good, he may
receive an unearned blessing of abundance not only in his basket,
but also in his head and his heart, his memory and his fancy. He
|
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 Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: colleague, and the consultation amused and excited the old man--
he became once more an important figure. The medical men
reassured the family--too completely!--and to the patient they
recommended a more varied diet: advised him to take whatever
"tempted him." And so one day, tremulously, prayerfully, he
decided on a tiny bit of melon. It was brought up with ceremony,
and consumed in the presence of the house-keeper and a hovering
cousin; and twenty minutes later he was dead. . .
"But you remember the circumstances," Granice went on; "how
suspicion turned at once on the Italian? In spite of the hint
the police had given him he had been seen hanging about the house
|
