| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from One Basket by Edna Ferber: highlights and sharp points of the city man. He seemed to blend
in with the background of nature so as to be almost
undistinguishable from it, as were the furred and feathered
creatures. This farmer differed from the city man as a hillock
differs from an artificial golf bunker, though form and substance
are the same.
Ben Westerveld didn't know he was a tragedy. Your farmer is not
given to introspection. For that matter, anyone knows that a
farmer in town is a comedy. Vaudeville, burlesque, the Sunday
supplement, the comic papers, have marked him a fair target for
ridicule. Perhaps one should know him in his overalled,
One Basket |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: Laugh for pure merriment, except one woman,
That was at night time, in the public streets.
Poor soul, she walked with painted lips, and wore
The mask of pleasure: I would not laugh like her;
No, death were better.
[Enter GUIDO behind unobserved; the DUCHESS flings herself down
before a picture of the Madonna.]
O Mary mother, with your sweet pale face
Bending between the little angel heads
That hover round you, have you no help for me?
Mother of God, have you no help for me?
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| 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: impersonation of 'The Vampire Monk, or, the Bloodless Benedictine,'
a performance so horrible that when old Lady Startup saw it, which
she did on one fatal New Year's Eve, in the year 1764, she went off
into the most piercing shrieks, which culminated in violent
apoplexy, and died in three days, after disinheriting the
Cantervilles, who were her nearest relations, and leaving all her
money to her London apothecary. At the last moment, however, his
terror of the twins prevented his leaving his room, and the little
Duke slept in peace under the great feathered canopy in the Royal
Bedchamber, and dreamed of Virginia.
CHAPTER V
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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 Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: "Who's that?" Chris whispered.
"A Mr. Barton. The train was late. That's why you didn't see him at dinner.
He's only a capitalist--water-power-long-distance-electricity-transmitter, or
something like that."
"Doesn't look as though he could give an ox points on imagination."
"He can't. He inherited his money. But he knows enough to hold on to it and
hire other men's brains. He is very conservative."
"That is to be expected," was Chris's comment. His gaze went back to the man
and woman who had been father and mother to the girl beside him. "Do you
know," he said, "it came to me with a shock yesterday when you told me that
they had turned against me and that I was scarcely tolerated. I met them
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