| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: while the spirit feasted upon the flavour of the fruit and cakes.
As I did not feel that it was appropriate for me to send these
things, I had a beautiful wreath of white chrysanthemum flowers
made, and sent that instead. While I appreciated the invitation,
I thought it was probably given only as a matter of form, and
that I was not expected to attend the exercises, and so I sent my
Chinese maid with the wreath, saying that as I did not understand
their customs I would not go.
It was not long until the maid returned saying that they were
anxious to have me come, that under no circumstances must I
refuse, as they wished me to see their funeral ceremonies. 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 The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: assuming towards me the bearing of a proud, harsh master, the
fault is his, not mine; and shall his injustice, his bad feeling,
turn me at once aside from the path I have chosen? No; at least,
ere I deviate, I will advance far enough to see whither my career
tends. As yet I am only pressing in at the entrance--a strait
gate enough; it ought to have a good terminus." While I thus
reasoned, Mr. Crimsworth rang a bell; his first clerk, the
individual dismissed previously to our conference,
re-entered.
"Mr. Steighton," said he, "show Mr. William the letters from
Voss, Brothers, and give him English copies of the answers; he
The Professor |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: only conceived at first under the bracing influence of old Dumas,
but have met with resurrection: one, strangely bettered by another
hand, came on the stage itself and was played by bodily actors; the
other, originally known as SEMIRAMIS: A TRAGEDY, I have observed on
bookstalls under the ALIAS of Prince Otto. But enough has been
said to show by what arts of impersonation, and in what purely
ventriloquial efforts I first saw my words on paper.
That, like it or not, is the way to learn to write whether I have
profited or not, that is the way. It was so Keats learned, and
there was never a finer temperament for literature than Keats's; it
was so, if we could trace it out, that all men have learned; and
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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 Rig Veda: 1. LIKE heaven art thou: one form is bright, one holy, like
Day and
Night dissimilar in colour.
All magic powers thou aidest, self-depen. dent! Auspicious
be thy
bounty here, O Pusan.
2 Goat-borne, the guard of cattle, he whose home is strength,
inspirer
of the hymn, set over all the world;
Brandishing here and there his lightly. moving goad, beholding
every
The Rig Veda |
