| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: reminiscence of this time:--
'Clapham Common, Surrey,
'November 28, 1867.
'My Dear Tyndall,--Sir H. Davy was accustomed to call on the late
Mr. Pepys, in the Poultry, on his way to the London Institution, of
which Pepys was one of the original managers; the latter told me
that on one occasion Sir H. Davy, showing him a letter, said:
"Pepys, what am I to do, here is a letter from a young man named
Faraday; he has been attending my lectures, and wants me to give him
employment at the Royal Institution--what can I do?" "Do?" replied
Pepys, "put him to wash bottles; if he is good for anything he will
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: scrambled over him, and peeped into his cavernous mouth, and
played among his hair. Sometimes, for a minute or two, the
Giant dropped asleep, and snored like the rush of a whirlwind.
During one of these little bits of slumber, a Pygmy chanced to
climb upon his shoulder, and took a view around the horizon, as
from the summit of a hill; and he beheld something, a long way
off, which made him rub the bright specks of his eyes, and look
sharper than before. At first he mistook it for a mountain, and
wondered how it had grown up so suddenly out of the earth. But
soon he saw the mountain move. As it came nearer and nearer,
what should it turn out to be but a human shape, not so big as
Tanglewood Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: breakfast. They always make me think of uncombed hair. That's
just one reason why I'm glad."
"And I'm glad," said Emma, looking at his clear eyes and steady
hand and firm skin, "for a number of reasons. One of them is
that you're not the sort of man who's a grouch at breakfast."
When he had hat and coat and stick in hand, and had kissed her
good-by and reached the door and opened it, he came back again,
as is the way of bridegrooms. But at last the door closed behind
him.
Emma sat there a moment, listening to his quick, light step down
the corridor, to the opening of the lift door, to its metallic
Emma McChesney & Co. |
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 Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.
The brown waves of fog toss up to me
Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
An aimless smile that hovers in the air
And vanishes along the level of the roofs.
The Boston Evening Transcript
The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript
Prufrock/Other Observations |
