| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: of chocolate, and that was all I had to eat. It may sound
offensive, but I ate them together, bite by bite, by way of bread
and meat. All I had to wash down this revolting mixture was neat
brandy: a revolting beverage in itself. But I was rare and
hungry; ate well, and smoked one of the best cigarettes in my
experience. Then I put a stone in my straw hat, pulled the flap of
my fur cap over my neck and eyes, put my revolver ready to my hand,
and snuggled well down among the sheepskins.
I questioned at first if I were sleepy, for I felt my heart beating
faster than usual, as if with an agreeable excitement to which my
mind remained a stranger. But as soon as my eyelids touched, that
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from To-morrow by Joseph Conrad: like fragments of columns, the gleam of white mar-
ble tops in the dimness of the drawn blinds. Cap-
tain Hagberd always described his purchases to
her, carefully, as to a person having a legitimate
interest in them. The overgrown yard of his cot-
tage could be laid over with concrete . . . after
to-morrow.
"We may just as well do away with the fence.
You could have your drying-line out, quite clear of
your flowers." He winked, and she would blush
faintly.
To-morrow |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: Portraits of people, pictures of places, he does not know, and yet
which purport to be his! And I venture to believe that to more than
one of us the exquisite pathos of the Bride of Lammermoor is gone
when Lucia warbles her woes, be it never so entrancingly, to an
admiring house. It almost seems as if the garish publicity of using
her name for operatic title were a special intervention of the Muse,
that we might the less connect song with story,--two sensations
that, like two lights, destroy one another by mutual interference.
Against this preference shown the sketch it may be urged that to
appreciate such suggestions presupposes as much art in the public as
in the painter. But the ability to appreciate a thing when
|
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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'I thank you,' she said, quivering. 'This is very true. Will you
stop the carriage?'
'No, child,' said Sir John, 'not until I see you mistress of
yourself.'
There was a long pause, during which the carriage rolled by rock and
woodland.
'And now,' she resumed, with perfect steadiness, 'will you consider
me composed? I request you, as a gentleman, to let me out.'
'I think you do unwisely,' he replied. 'Continue, if you please, to
use my carriage.'
'Sir John,' she said, 'if death were sitting on that pile of stones,
|
