| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: of Mr. John Lambert. His features were irregular, but not
insignificant, and there was a certain air of slow command
about him, which made some persons call him handsome. He was
heavily built, with a large, well-shaped head, light whiskers
tinged with gray, and a sort of dusty complexion. His face was
full of little curved wrinkles, as if it were a slate just
ruled for sums in long division, and his small blue eyes winked
anxiously a dozen different ways, as if they were doing the
sums. He seemed to bristle with memorandum-books, and kept
drawing them from every pocket, to put something down. He was
slow of speech, and his very heaviness of look added to the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: Burlington House till the announcement is made, and then race to
the hapless artist's house. The one who arrives first receives the
money. They have of late been much troubled at the long distances
they have had to run, and they look with disfavour on the election
of artists who live at Hampstead or at Bedford Park, for it is
considered a point of honour not to employ the underground railway,
omnibuses, or any artificial means of locomotion. The race is to
the swift.
Besides the professional posers of the studio there are posers of
the Row, the posers at afternoon teas, the posers in politics and
the circus posers. All four classes are delightful, but only the
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: snatch it from no other rites and associate it with nothing
profane; he would simply take it as it should be given up to him
and make it a masterpiece of splendour and a mountain of fire.
Tended sacredly all the year, with the sanctifying church round it,
it would always be ready for his offices. There would be
difficulties, but from the first they presented themselves only as
difficulties surmounted. Even for a person so little affiliated
the thing would be a matter of arrangement. He saw it all in
advance, and how bright in especial the place would become to him
in the intermissions of toil and the dusk of afternoons; how rich
in assurance at all times, but especially in the indifferent world.
|
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 Coxon Fund by Henry James: correspondence with Lady Coxon's housekeeper--that Gravener was
known to have spoken of the habitation I had in my eye as the
pleasantest thing at Clockborough. On his part, I was sure, this
was the voice not of envy but of experience. The vivid scene was
now peopled, and I could see him in the old-time garden with Miss
Anvoy, who would be certain, and very justly, to think him good-
looking. It would be too much to describe myself as troubled by
this play of surmise; but I occur to remember the relief, singular
enough, of feeling it suddenly brushed away by an annoyance really
much greater; an annoyance the result of its happening to come over
me about that time with a rush that I was simply ashamed of Frank
|
