| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: see, it was this way."
Mindful of their experience with the mate of the whaleback, Condy
and Blix were all attention in an instant. Blix sat down upon an
upturned box, her elbows on her knees, leaning forward, her little
eyes fixed and shining with interest and expectation; Condy, the
story-teller all alive and vibrant in him, stood at her elbow,
smoking cigarette after cigarette, his fingers dancing with
excitement and animation as the Captain spoke.
And then it was that Condy and Blix, in that isolated station, the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: This is what I mean: Suppose that I were to cover your auburn locks with
white lead, would they be really white, or would they only appear to be
white?
They would only appear to be white, he replied.
And yet whiteness would be present in them?
True.
But that would not make them at all the more white, notwithstanding the
presence of white in them--they would not be white any more than black?
No.
But when old age infuses whiteness into them, then they become assimilated,
and are white by the presence of white.
Lysis |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: isn't religious. It's personal, almost. You've been away
so many years you've forgotten. They don't object to us as
a sect, or a race, but as a type. That's the trouble,
Clarence Heyl says. We're free to build as many synagogues
as we like, and worship in them all day, if we want to. But
we don't want to. The struggle isn't racial any more, but
individual. For some reason or other one flashy, loud-
talking Hebrew in a restaurant can cause more ill feeling
than ten thousand of them holding a religious mass meeting
in Union Square."
Theodore pondered a moment. "Then here each one of us is
Fanny Herself |
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 Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: brilliant and thoughtful people with whom my literary work has
brought me into contact, and of which, seeing me only as you have
done alone in Morningside Park, you can have no idea. I have a
certain standing not only as a singer but as a critic, and I
belong to one of the most brilliant causerie dinner clubs of the
day, in which successful Bohemianism, politicians, men of
affairs, artists, sculptors, and cultivated noblemen generally,
mingle together in the easiest and most delightful intercourse.
That is my real milieu, and one that I am convinced you would not
only adorn but delight in.
"I find it very hard to write this letter. There are so many
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