| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: My mishap of yesterday, told in an off-hand way, produced a deep
sensation. It was Othello over again, with no less than three
Desdemonas and a sprinkling of sympathetic senators in the
background. Never were the canoes more flattered, or flattered
more adroitly.
'It is like a violin,' cried one of the girls in an ecstasy.
'I thank you for the word, mademoiselle,' said I. 'All the more
since there are people who call out to me that it is like a
coffin.'
'Oh! but it is really like a violin. It is finished like a
violin,' she went on.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: white logs, half imbedded, shining against the brick red. August Naab
drew aside a blanket hanging over a door, and entered, beckoning his
companion to follow. Inured as Hare had become to the smell and smart of
wood-smoke, for a moment he could not see, or scarcely breathe, so thick
was the atmosphere. A fire, the size of which attested the desert
Indian's love of warmth, blazed in the middle of the hogan, and sent part
of its smoke upward through a round hole in the roof. Eschtah, with
blanket over his shoulders, his lean black head bent, sat near the fire.
He noted the entrance of his visitors, but immediately resumed his
meditative posture, and appeared to be unaware of their presence.
Hare followed August's example, sitting down and speaking no word. His
The Heritage of the Desert |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: found Idea back of them?
There's Cubist and Futurist Art, for instance --
one doesn't hear nearly so much about them now,
though everyone admitted there was an Idea be-
hind them.
Of course, no one knew what the Idea MEANT.
But it was stimulating.
And why should an Idea have to MEAN anything
if it is STIMULATING?
Stimulation! Stimulation! That is the secret
of Modern Life!
|
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 Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: scent made up of a hundred odors, and noise enough for a hundred
voices. No one has any notion of what he is eating or drinking or
saying. Some are depressed, others babble, one will turn monomaniac,
repeating the same word over and over again like a bell set jangling;
another tries to keep the tumult within bounds; the steadiest will
propose an orgy. If any one in possession of his faculties should come
in, he would think that he had interrupted a Bacchanalian rite.
"It was in the thick of such a chaos that M. de Trailles tried to
insinuate himself into my good graces. My head was fairly clear, I was
upon my guard. As for him, though he pretended to be decently drunk,
he was perfectly cool, and knew very well what he was about. How it
Gobseck |
