| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: over and over in his hands.
"Do ye ken what's in it?" he asked, suddenly.
"You see for yourself, sir," said I, "that the seal has not been
broken."
"Ay," said he, "but what brought you here?"
"To give the letter," said I.
"No," says he, cunningly, "but ye'll have had some hopes, nae
doubt?"
"I confess, sir," said I, "when I was told that I had kinsfolk
well-to-do, I did indeed indulge the hope that they might help me
in my life. But I am no beggar; I look for no favours at your
Kidnapped |
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 Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: the soul of nature by the soul of man; the mirror of a mood,
passing, perhaps, in fact, but perpetuated thus to fancy. Being an
emotion, its intensity is directly proportional to the singleness
with which it possesses the thoughts. The Far Oriental fully
realizes the power of simplicity. This principle is his fundamental
canon of pictorial art. To understand his paintings, it is from
this standpoint they must be regarded; not as soulless photographs
of scenery, but as poetic presentations of the spirit of the scenes.
The very charter of painting depends upon its not giving us charts.
And if with us a long poem be a contradiction in terms, a full
picture is with them as self-condemnatory a production. From the
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