| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: this case juggled away the excess and the difference - you only saw
them in a rare glimpse, like the rabbit in the conjurer's sleeve.
She was extraordinarily white, and her every element and item was
pretty; her eyes, her ears, her hair, her voice, her hands, her
feet - to which her relaxed attitude in her wicker chair gave a
great publicity - and the numerous ribbons and trinkets with which
she was bedecked. She looked as if she had put on her best clothes
to go to church and then had decided they were too good for that
and had stayed at home. She told a story of some length about the
shabby way Lady Jane had treated the Duchess, as well as an
anecdote in relation to a purchase she had made in Paris - on her
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: smiling in silence for a short time longer, and then said, slowly
and distinctly:
'You are indeed an earnest fellow, Dennis--a most valuable fellow--
the staunchest man I know of in our ranks. But you must calm
yourself; you must be peaceful, lawful, mild as any lamb. I am
sure you will be though.'
'Ay, ay, we shall see, Muster Gashford, we shall see. You won't
have to complain of me,' returned the other, shaking his head.
'I am sure I shall not,' said the secretary in the same mild tone,
and with the same emphasis. 'We shall have, we think, about next
month, or May, when this Papist relief bill comes before the house,
Barnaby Rudge |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: and it had invariably ended in another disappointment. So now again, at
the mere wind of its coming, at the mere mention of his father's name -
who might seem indeed to have accompanied them in their whole moorland
courtship, an awful figure in a wig with an ironical and bitter smile,
present to guilty consciousness - she fled from it head down.
"Ye havena told me yet," she said, "who was it spoke?"
"Your aunt for one," said Archie.
"Auntie Kirstie?" she cried. "And what do I care for my Auntie
Kirstie?"
"She cares a great deal for her niece," replied Archie, in kind reproof.
"Troth, and it's the first I've heard of it," retorted the girl.
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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 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: character of the race, or to speak more physiologically, in the
average TEMPO of the assimilation of its nutriment. There are
honestly meant translations, which, as involuntary
vulgarizations, are almost falsifications of the original, merely
because its lively and merry TEMPO (which overleaps and obviates
all dangers in word and expression) could not also be rendered. A
German is almost incapacitated for PRESTO in his language;
consequently also, as may be reasonably inferred, for many of the
most delightful and daring NUANCES of free, free-spirited
thought. And just as the buffoon and satyr are foreign to him in
body and conscience, so Aristophanes and Petronius are
Beyond Good and Evil |
