| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: a pipeful?' I cannot think that is wicked--no!"
There was a warmth of sincerity in the honest fellow's utterance
that spoke well for the character of the cure of St. Gerome. The
good word of a plain fisherman or hunter is worth more than a degree
of doctor of divinity from a learned university.
I too had grateful memories of good men, faithful, charitable, wise,
devout,--men before whose virtues my heart stood uncovered and
reverent, men whose lives were sweet with self-sacrifice, and whose
words were like stars of guidance to many souls,--and I had often
seen these men solacing their toils and inviting pleasant, kindly
thoughts with the pipe of peace. I wondered whether Miss Miller
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: workman choosing a good tool wherever he can find one, and
not at all in that of the dilettante, who seeks to renew
bygone forms of thought and make historic forgeries. With
the ballade this seemed natural enough; for in connection
with ballades the mind recurs to Villon, and Villon was
almost more of a modern than de Banville himself. But in the
case of the rondel, a comparison is challenged with Charles
of Orleans, and the difference between two ages and two
literatures is illustrated in a few poems of thirteen lines.
Something, certainly, has been retained of the old movement;
the refrain falls in time like a well-played bass; and the
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