| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: cockrobin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its
loud querulous note; and the twittering blackbirds flying in
sable clouds, and the golden- winged woodpecker with his crimson
crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid plumage; and the
cedar-bird, with its red tipt wings and yellow-tipt tail and its
little monteiro cap of feathers; and the blue jay, that noisy
coxcomb, in his gay light blue coat and white underclothes,
screaming and chattering, nodding and bobbing and bowing, and
pretending to be on good terms with every songster of the grove.
As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way, his eye, ever open to
every symptom of culinary abundance, ranged with delight over the
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: " 'Oh, I shall be much kinder before I have done. Just imagine it,
poor M. Denisart has been worried into the jaundice! Yes, it has gone
to the liver, as it usually does with susceptible old men. It is a
pity he feels things so. I told him so myself; I said, "Be passionate,
there is no harm in that, but as for taking things to heart--draw the
line at that! It is the way to kill yourself."--Really, I would not
have expected him to take on so about it; a man that has sense enough
and experience enough to keep away as he does while he digests his
dinner--'
" 'But what is the matter?' inquired Mlle. Chocardelle.
" 'That little baggage with whom I dined has cleared out and left him!
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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 Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: And prayed him go, if him he feared or loved.
LI
Their speeches soften much the warrior's heart,
And make his wilful thoughts at last relent,
So that he yields, and saith he will depart,
And leave the Christian camp incontinent.
His friends, whose love did never shrink or start,
Preferred their aid, what way soe'er he went:
He thanked them all, but left them all, besides
Two bold and trusty squires, and so he rides.
LII
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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 Pupil by Henry James: that went, how the great change had come, the dreadful bolt had
fallen, and how they would now all have to turn themselves about.
Therefore cruel as it was to them to part with their darling she
must look to him to carry a little further the influence he had so
fortunately acquired with the boy - to induce his young charge to
follow him into some modest retreat. They depended on him - that
was the fact - to take their delightful child temporarily under his
protection; it would leave Mr. Moreen and herself so much more free
to give the proper attention (too little, alas! had been given) to
the readjustment of their affairs.
"We trust you - we feel we CAN," said Mrs. Moreen, slowly rubbing
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