| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: this be imagined; and then behold the artist, on a winter
evening, seeking admittance to Robert Danforth's fireside circle.
There he found the man of iron, with his massive substance
thoroughly warmed and attempered by domestic influences. And
there was Annie, too, now transformed into a matron, with much of
her husband's plain and sturdy nature, but imbued, as Owen
Warland still believed, with a finer grace, that might enable her
to be the interpreter between strength and beauty. It happened,
likewise, that old Peter Hovenden was a guest this evening at his
daughter's fireside, and it was his well-remembered expression of
keen, cold criticism that first encountered the artist's glance.
Mosses From An Old Manse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: Creation, introduce the horse, the deer, or the worm. We have
both the horse and the worm in The Ring, treated exactly in
Haydn's manner, and with an effect not a whit less ridiculous to
superior people who decline to take it good-humoredly. Even the
complaisance of good Wagnerites is occasionally rather
overstrained by the way in which Brynhild's allusions to her
charger Grani elicit from the band a little rum-ti-tum triplet
which by itself is in no way suggestive of a horse, although a
continuous rush of such triplets makes a very exciting musical
gallop.
Other themes denote objects which cannot be imitatively suggested
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: But these, sir, are small reasons, in my opinion, compared with
the chance which your life will give for the forming of future
great men; and in conjunction with your Art of Virtue (which you
design to publish) of improving the features of private character,
and consequently of aiding all happiness, both public and domestic.
The two works I allude to, sir, will in particular give a noble
rule and example of self-education. School and other education
constantly proceed upon false principles, and show a clumsy
apparatus pointed at a false mark; but your apparatus is simple,
and the mark a true one; and while parents and young persons
are left destitute of other just means of estimating and becoming
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
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 Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce: HYDRA, n. A kind of animal that the ancients catalogued under many
heads.
HYENA, n. A beast held in reverence by some oriental nations from its
habit of frequenting at night the burial-places of the dead. But the
medical student does that.
HYPOCHONDRIASIS, n. Depression of one's own spirits.
Some heaps of trash upon a vacant lot
Where long the village rubbish had been shot
Displayed a sign among the stuff and stumps --
"Hypochondriasis." It meant The Dumps.
Bogul S. Purvy
The Devil's Dictionary |
