| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: imperfect facts. Upon me this pure, narrow, sunnily-ascetic
Thoreau had exercised a great charm. I have scarce written
ten sentences since I was introduced to him, but his
influence might be somewhere detected by a close observer.
Still it was as a writer that I had made his acquaintance; I
took him on his own explicit terms; and when I learned
details of his life, they were, by the nature of the case and
my own PARTI-PRIS, read even with a certain violence in terms
of his writings. There could scarce be a perversion more
justifiable than that; yet it was still a perversion. The
study indeed, raised so much ire in the breast of Dr. Japp
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Soul of a Bishop by H. G. Wells: drawings that were littered over the inlaid table. "I've planned
and planned. I said, I will build him a temple. I will be his
temple se'vant.... Just a me' se'vant...."
She could not go on.
"But it is just these temples that have confused mankind," he
said.
"Not my temple," she said presently, now openly weeping over
the gay rejected drawings. "You could have explained...."
"Oh!" she said petulantly, and thrust them away from her so
that they went sliding one after the other on to the floor. For
some long-drawn moments there was no sound in the room but the
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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 Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: which this powerful combination fills the boldest was obviously
no stranger to the bosom of our friend. The hot Scotch having
somewhat warmed up the embers of the Heidsieck, It was touching
to observe the master's eagerness to pull himself together under
the servant's eye; and when he remarked, 'I think, Teena, I'll
take a brandy and soda,' he spoke like a man doubtful of his
elocution, and not half certain of obedience.
'No such a thing, Mr Michael,' was the prompt return. 'Clar't and
water.'
'Well, well, Teena, I daresay you know best,' said the master.
'Very fatiguing day at the office, though.'
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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 Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: allowed no successor; but, as for that, the vicar did not want for
domestic utensils. In the parish everyone thought it an honour to lend
him theirs, the more readily because he was not the man to spoil
anything, and was careful to clean them out thoroughly, the dear man.
But here are the facts. One evening the good man came home to supper
with a melancholy face, because he had just put into the ground a good
farmer, whose death came about in a strange manner, and is still
frequently talked about in Azay. Seeing that he only ate with the end
of his teeth, and turned up his nose at a dish of tripe, which had
been cooked in his own special manner, his good woman said to him--
"Have you passed before the Lombard (see MASTER CORNELIUS passim), met
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
