| 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: crashed, and cracked up and down the canyons and over the
peaks, hastened her decision. She looked about her. Peak
on peak. Purple and black and yellow masses, fantastic in
their hugeness. Chasms. Canyons. Pyramids and minarets.
And so near. So grim. So ghastly desolate. And yet so
threatening. And then Fanny Brandeis was seized with
mountain terror. It is a disease recognized by mountain men
everywhere, and it is panic, pure and simple. It is fear
brought on by the immensity and the silence of the
mountains. A great horror of the vastness and ruggedness
came upon her. It was colossal, it was crushing, it was
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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: have carried it with a better air if he had shown more chivalrous
boldness in the presence of his true lady; whether it would not
have redounded more to his credit if he had in some way asserted
his rights as the young dame's knight- errant and defender. Was
it not ignominious to resign his rights and privileges so easily
and tamely at a signal from the Earl?
"For, in sooth," said he to Gascoyne, as the two talked the
matter over, "she hath, in a certain way, accepted me for her
knight, and yet I stood me there without saying so much as one
single word in her behalf."
"Nay," said Gascoyne, "I would not trouble me on that score.
Men of Iron |
