| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: sacrificed. The generals were stupids. The
enemy would presently swallow the whole com-
mand. He glared about him, expecting to see
the stealthy approach of his death.
He thought that he must break from the ranks
and harangue his comrades. They must not all
be killed like pigs; and he was sure it would
come to pass unless they were informed of these
dangers. The generals were idiots to send them
marching into a regular pen. There was but one
pair of eyes in the corps. He would step forth
The Red Badge of Courage |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: Manitou and Oki meant anything endowed with supernatural
powers, from a snake-skin or a greasy Indian conjurer up to
Manabozho and Jouskeha. The priests were forced to use a
circumlocution,--`the great chief of men,' or 'he who lives in
the sky.' " Parkman, Jesuits in North America, p. lxxix. "The
Algonquins used no oaths, for their language supplied none;
doubtless because their mythology had no beings sufficiently
distinct to swear by." Ibid, p. 31.
In the unsystematic nature-worship of the old Aryans the gods
are presented to us only as vague powers, with their nature
and attributes dimly defined, and their relations to each
Myths and Myth-Makers |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: as the clergyman had arranged the bridal company before him, and
seemed about to commence the service, another group of persons,
of whom two or three were officers, entered the church. They
moved, at first, forward, as though they came to witness the
bridal ceremony; but suddenly one of the officers, whose back was
towards the spectators, detached himself from his companions, and
rushed hastily towards the marriage party, when the whole of them
turned towards him, as if attracted by some exclamation which had
accompanied his advance. Suddenly the intruder drew his sword;
the bridegroom unsheathed his own, and made towards him; swords
were also drawn by other individuals, both of the marriage party
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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 Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: 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
expressed is but half that necessary to express it. Some
understanding must exist in the observer for any work to be
intelligible. It is only a question of degree. The greater the
art-sense in the person addressed, the more had better be left to it.
Now in Japan the public is singularly artistic. In fact, the
artistic appreciation of the masses there is something astonishing
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