| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: Thro' this metrification of Catullus,
They should speak to me not without a welcome,
All that chorus of indolent reviewers.
Hard, hard, hard is it, only not to tumble,
So fantastical is the dainty metre.
Wherefore slight me not wholly, nor believe me
Too presumptuous, indolent reviewers.
O blatant Magazines, regard me rather--
Since I blush to belaud myself a moment--
As some rare little rose, a piece of inmost
Horticultural art, or half coquette-like
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: them, I say--to go and elect, not me, who ever since my name first
apepared on the muster-roll have literally worn myself out with
military service--now as a captain, now as a colonel--and have
received all these wounds from the enemy, look you! (at the same time,
and suiting the action to the word, he bared his arms and proceeded to
show the scars of ancient wounds)--they elect not me (he went on),
but, if you please, Antisthenes! who never served as a hoplite[2] in
his life nor in the cavalry ever made a brilliant stroke, that I ever
heard tell of; no! in fact, he has got no science at all, I take it,
except to amass stores of wealth.
[2] Cf. Lys. xiv. 10.
The Memorabilia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: drinking, as she had heard, he was entirely master of himself.
Her efforts might still be directed to Philip sober.
"I sent for you to congratulate you," she answered, with a smile.
"You are a bigger man than I thought. You have done what you said
you would do, and I presume you can very shortly go out of
mourning."
He radiated vanity, seemed to visibly expand "Do y'u go in when I
go out?" he asked brutally.
She laughed lightly. "Hardly. But it does seem as if I'm unlucky
in my foremen. They all seem to have engagements across the
divide."
|
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 Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: will obey her every least behest; for that is my pride and my delight.'...
So you say. But the opulent and elegant season of flowers is very short:
soon they will fade and fall. Then, in the time of summer heat, there will
be green leaves only; and presently the winds of autumn will blow, when
even the leaves themselves will shower down like rain, parari-parari. And
your fate will then be as the fate of the unlucky in the proverb, Tanomi ki
no shita ni ame furu [Even through the tree upon which I relied for shelter
the rain leaks down]. For you will seek out your old friend, the
root-cutting insect, the grub, and beg him to let you return into your
old-time hole;-- but now having wings, you will not be able to enter the
hole because of them, and you will not be able to shelter your body
Kwaidan |
