| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: as to details which are nowadays so closely, so elaborately studied
under the name of 'local color.' If the robbers were in a cavern,
instead of pointing to the sky he ought to have pointed to the vault
above him.--In spite of this inaccuracy, Rinaldo strikes me as a man
of spirit, and his appeal to God is quite Italian. There must have
been a touch of local color in this romance. Why, what with brigands,
and a cavern, and one Lamberti who could foresee future possibilities
--there is a whole melodrama in that page. Add to these elements a
little intrigue, a peasant maiden with her hair dressed high, short
skirts, and a hundred or so of bad couplets.--Oh! the public will
crowd to see it! And then Rinaldo--how well the name suits Lafont! By
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: dark line on the water, above which rolled and tumbled the racing
clouds. The first breath of the wind, faint and silken, tonic with
life, fanned through his dry-baked body as he finished reading.
Then came the second breath of the wind, an angry gust, as the
shovels worked rapidly, filling in the sand. So heavy was the gust
that Sheldon, still on his feet, seized hold of his man-horse to
escape being blown away. The Jessie was blotted out, and a strange
ominous sound arose as multitudinous wavelets struck foaming on the
beach. It was like the bubbling of some colossal cauldron. From
all about could be heard the dull thudding of falling cocoanuts.
The tall, delicate-trunked trees twisted and snapped about like
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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 On Horsemanship by Xenophon: the day the horse were, off and on, stepping along a stony road;
whilst being curried or when fidgeted by flies he will be forced to
use his hoofs just as much as if he were walking. Nor is it the hoofs
merely, but a surface so strewn with stones will tend to harden the
frog of the foot also.
[7] Lit. "A damp and smooth floor may be the ruin of a naturally good
hoof." It will be understood that the Greeks did not shoe their
horses.
[8] See Courier, p. 54, for an interesting experiment tried by himself
at Bari.
[9] Cf. "Hipparch," i. 16.
On Horsemanship |
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 Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: make out a sail some eight miles off the starboard bow. Even at
that distance, and to eyes so inexperienced as those of Wilbur, it
needed but a glance to know that something was wrong with her. It
was not that she failed to ride the waves with even keel, it was
not that her rigging was in disarray, nor that her sails were
disordered. Her distance was too great to make out such details.
But in precisely the same manner as a trained physician glances at
a doomed patient, and from that indefinable look in the face of
him and the eyes of him pronounces the verdict "death," so
Kitchell took in the stranger with a single comprehensive glance,
and exclaimed:
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