| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: camp, the horses had until the following morning to
get rested and to graze, while we had all the remainder
of the afternoon to fish, hunt, or loaf. Sometimes,
however, it was more expedient to make a lunch-camp
at noon. Then we allowed an hour for grazing, and
about half an hour to pack and unpack. It meant
steady work for ourselves. To unpack, turn out the
horses, cook, wash dishes, saddle up seven animals,
and repack, kept us very busy. There remained not
much leisure to enjoy the scenery. It freshened the
horses, however, which was the main point. I should
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: of whom each individual occupies a space of six square feet, but has a
kitchen, a workshop, a bed, children, a garden, little light to see
by, but must see all. Imperceptibly, the articulations begin to crack;
motion communicates itself; the street speaks. By mid-day, all is
alive; the chimneys smoke, the monster eats; then he roars, and his
thousand paws begin to ramp. Splendid spectacle! But, O Paris! he who
has not admired your gloomy passages, your gleams and flashes of
light, your deep and silent /cul-de-sacs/, who has not listened to
your murmurings between midnight and two in the morning, knows nothing
as yet of your true poesy, nor of your broad and fantastic contrasts.
There are a few amateurs who never go their way heedlessly; who savor
Ferragus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: everything was green, and, small, and moving--but Sister Justina
said there was not any window like that in the whole world--''
The lady held Bessie Bell's hand very hard, and she said--softly, as
if she, too, was talking her thinking aloud:
``Yes, there was a window like that in the world, for just outside
the nursery-window there grew a Pride of China Tree, and it filled
all the window with small, green, moving leaves--''
Then Bessie Bell just let the lady draw her up close, and she leaned
up against the lady.
She felt so happy now, for she knew she had found the Wisest Woman
in the world, for this lady knew the things that little girls only
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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 The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: of abstruse phrases in which Cavor expressed himself. Comic relief in a
play indeed! It was some time before I would believe that I had
interpreted him aright, and I was very careful not to ask questions that
would have enabled him to gauge the profundity of misunderstanding into
which he dropped his daily exposition. But no one reading the story of it
here will sympathise fully, because from my barren narrative it will be
impossible to gather the strength of my conviction that this astonishing
substance was positively going to be made.
I do not recall that I gave my play an hour's consecutive work at any time
after my visit to his house. My imagination had other things to do. There
seemed no limit to the possibilities of the stuff; whichever way I tried I
The First Men In The Moon |
