| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: imminent peril of harness and lead-bar, or smashes into the wall,
stops short with the lead-bar over her back, and emits a couple of
hysterical kicks. The Outlaw invariably selects this moment to
remove paint. And after things are untangled and you have had
time to appreciate the close shave, you go up to Prince and
reprove him with your choicest vocabulary. And Prince, gazelle-
eyed and tender, offers to shake hands with you for sugar. I
leave it to any one: a boat would never act that way.
We have some history north of the Bay. Nearly three centuries and
a half ago, that doughty pirate and explorer, Sir Francis Drake,
combing the Pacific for Spanish galleons, anchored in the bight
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: "What," said he, "makes the difference between man and all the rest
of the animal creation? Every beast that strays beside me has the
same corporal necessities with myself: he is hungry, and crops the
grass; he is thirsty, and drinks the stream; his thirst and hunger
are appeased; he is satisfied, and sleeps; he rises again, and is
hungry; he is again fed, and is at rest. I am hungry and thirsty,
like him, but when thirst and hunger cease, I am not at rest. I
am, like him, pained with want, but am not, like him, satisfied
with fulness. The intermediate hours are tedious and gloomy; I
long again to be hungry that I may again quicken the attention.
The birds peck the berries or the corn, and fly away to the groves,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: on the paw of the great Chief Dragon, who angrily
raised his other front paw and struck the Green Monkey
a fierce blow. Woot went sailing through the air and
fell sprawling upon the rocky floor far beyond the
place where the Dragon Tribe was grouped.
All the great beasts were now thoroughly wakened and
aroused, and they blamed the monkey for disturbing
their quiet. The littlest Dragon darted after Woot and
the others turned their unwieldy bodies in his
direction and followed, flashing from their eyes and
mouths flames which lighted up the entire cavern. Woot
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: formal chivalry of this unmannered man to the person on earth with
whom he was the most familiar. He was conscious of his own innate
and often rasping vivacity and roughness and he was never forgetful
of his first visit to the Austins and the vow he had registered on
his return. There was thus an artificial element in his punctilio
that at times might almost raise a smile. But it stood on noble
grounds; for this was how he sought to shelter from his own
petulance the woman who was to him the symbol of the household and
to the end the beloved of his youth.
I wish in this chapter to chronicle small beer; taking a hasty
glance at some ten years of married life and of professional
|
