| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: couldn't make a mistake about so vital a question. I
couldn't love him if he really were a coarse,
illiterate brute. What you see is only on the surface.
He hasn't had his chance yet----"
"Who is he? What does he do? Who are his people?"
"He has no people----"
"I thought not."
"I love him all the more deeply," she went on
firmly, "because of his miserable childhood. I'll do
my best to make up for the years of cruelty and hunger
and suffering through which he passed. What right have
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: he began to tell me stories of the places that we could
see--strange stories of domestic calamity, and social conflict,
and eccentric passion, and hidden crime.
"Do you remember Hawthorne's story of 'The Minister's
Black Veil?' It is the best comment on human life that ever
was written. Everyone has something to hide. The surface of
life is a mask. The substance of life is a secret. All
humanity wears the black veil. But it is not impenetrable.
No, it is transparent, if you find the right point of view.
Here, on Spy Rock, I have found it. I have learned how to
look through the veil. I can see, not by the light-rays only,
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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 Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: And inherited cunning of spirit and beauty of body and face.
Of yore in his youth, as an aito, Rahero wandered the land,
Delighting maids with his tongue, smiting men with his hand.
Famous he was in his youth; but before the midst of his life
Paused, and fashioned a song of farewell to glory and strife.
HOUSE OF MINE (IT WENT), HOUSE UPON THE SEA,
BELOV'D OF ALL MY FATHERS, MORE BELOV'D BY ME!
VALE OF THE STRONG HONOURA, DEEP RAVINE OF PAI,
AGAIN IN YOUR WOODY SUMMITS I HEAR THE TRADE-WIND CRY.
HOUSE OF MINE, IN YOUR WALLS, STRONG SOUNDS THE SEA,
OF ALL SOUNDS ON EARTH, DEAREST SOUND TO ME.
Ballads |
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 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: felt at once that not their tracks only but they themselves were
here before her, and not one, but many. Laska slackened her
speed. They were here, but where precisely she could not yet
determine. To find the very spot, she began to make a circle,
when suddenly her master's voice drew her off. "Laska! here?" he
asked, pointing her to a different direction. She stopped, asking
him if she had better not go on doing as she had begun. But he
repeated his command in an angry voice, pointing to a spot
covered with water, where there could not be anything. She obeyed
him, pretending she was looking, so as to please him, went round
it, and went back to her former position, and was at once aware
Anna Karenina |
