| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: muchacho mio. It is about the death of a man, and it should go with our
bell."
The boy listened. "Then the father has played it a tone too low," said
he, "for our bell rings the note of sol, or something very near it, as
the father must surely know." He placed the melody in the right key--an
easy thing for him; and the Padre was delighted.
"Ah, my Felipe," he exclaimed, "what could you and I not do if we had a
better organ! Only a little better! See! above this row of keys would be
a second row, and many more stops. Then we would make such music as has
never yet been heard in California. But my people are so poor and so few!
And some day I shall have passed from them, and it will be too late."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: l'ange de la mort, et l'ange n'est-il pas venu?
SALOME. Laisse-moi baiser ta bouche.
IOKANAAN. Fille d'adultere, il n'y a qu'un homme qui puisse te
sauver. C'est celui dont je t'ai parle. Allez le chercher. Il est
dans un bateau sur la mer de Galilee, et il parle e ses disciples.
Agenouillez-vous au bord de la mer, et appelez-le par son nom.
Quand il viendra vers vous, et il vient vers tous ceux qui
l'appellent, prosternez-vous e ses pieds et demandez-lui la
remission de vos peches.
SALOME. Laisse-moi baiser ta bouche.
IOKANAAN. Soyez maudite, fille d'une mere incestueuse, soyez
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the cover tight before I reached it.
I stood there a moment in dumb consternation. What did the
fellow intend? What was going on below? If Benson was a traitor,
how could I know that there were not other traitors among us?
I cursed myself for my folly in going out upon the deck, and then
this thought suggested another--a hideous one: who was it that
had really been responsible for my being here?
Thinking to attract attention from inside the craft, I again ran
down the ladder and onto the small deck only to find that the
steel covers of the conning-tower windows were shut, and then I
leaned with my back against the tower and cursed myself for a
The Land that Time Forgot |
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 Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: green curtains occupied one corner; and the window was
blocked by the regulation table and mirror. The door of a
small closet here attracted the young man's attention; and
striking a vesta, he opened it and entered. On a table
several wigs and beards were lying spread; about the walls
hung an incongruous display of suits and overcoats; and
conspicuous among the last the young man observed a large
overall of the most costly sealskin. In a flash his mind
reverted to the advertisement in the STANDARD newspaper. The
great height of his lodger, the disproportionate breadth of
his shoulders, and the strange particulars of his instalment,
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