| 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: of the scratch dinner and the smashing crockery, the pleasure - an
endless pleasure - of balancing to the swell: well, it's over.
SECOND, I had a fine time, rather a troubled one, at Newport and
New York; saw much of and liked hugely the Fairchilds, St. Gaudens
the sculptor, Gilder of the CENTURY - just saw the dear Alexander -
saw a lot of my old and admirable friend Will Low, whom I wish you
knew and appreciated - was medallioned by St. Gaudens, and at last
escaped to
THIRD, Saranac Lake, where we now are, and which I believe we mean
to like and pass the winter at. Our house - emphatically 'Baker's'
- is on a hill, and has a sight of a stream turning a corner in the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: like the noospaper."
She disappeared for a moment, and returned with a bit
of twisted-up tissue paper from which she unwrapped the
brooch.
Charity, as she looked at it, felt a stir of warmth at
her heart. She held out an eager hand.
"Have you got the change?" she asked a little
breathlessly, laying one of the twenty-dollar bills on
the table.
"Change? What'd I want to have change for? I only see
two twenties there," Dr. Merkle answered brightly.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: But at present there is our house here, which belongs like to both. It
is common property, for all that I possess goes by my will into the
common fund, and in the same way all that you deposited[15] was placed
by you to the common fund.[16] We need not stop to calculate in
figures which of us contributed most, but rather let us lay to heart
this fact that whichever of us proves the better partner, he or she at
once contributes what is most worth having."
[11] (The timid, fawn-like creature.) See Lecky, "Hist. of Eur.
Morals," ii. 305. For the metaphor cf. Dem. "Olynth." iii. 37. 9.
[12] Lit. "woman." Cf. N. T. {gunai}, St. John ii. 4; xix. 26.
[13] Or, "our interests will centre in them; it will be a blessing we
|
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 Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: forth to meet half-way. What an ideal being was this Albert--gloomy,
unhappy, eloquent, laborious, as compared by Mademoiselle de
Watteville to that chubby fat Count, bursting with health, paying
compliments, and talking of the fashions in the very face of the
splendor of the old counts of Rupt. Amedee had cost her many quarrels
and scoldings, and, indeed, she knew him only too well; while this
Albert Savaron offered many enigmas to be solved.
"Albert Savaron de Savarus," she repeated to herself.
Now, to see him, to catch sight of him! This was the desire of the
girl to whom desire was hitherto unknown. She pondered in her heart,
in her fancy, in her brain, the least phrases used by the Abbe de
Albert Savarus |
