| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: "Yes."
"Well, then, what will you give my daughter?"
"All that she is willing to gain in my service."
"Oh! my lord, you are a joking."
"No," said he.
"Yes," said she.
"By St. Gatien, St. Eleuther, and by the thousand million saints who
are in heaven, I swear that--"
"Ah! Well; if you are not jesting I should like those fagots to pass
through the hands of the notary."
"By the blood of Christ and the charms of your daughter am I not a
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: horizon level as that of the ocean. During the night a heavy
dew fell, a circumstance which we did not experience within
the Cordillera. The road proceeded for some distance due
east across a low swamp; then meeting the dry plain, it
turned to the north towards Mendoza. The distance is two
very long days' journey. Our first day's journey was called
fourteen leagues to Estacado, and the second seventeen to
Luxan, near Mendoza. The whole distance is over a level
desert plain, with not more than two or three houses. The
sun was exceedingly powerful, and the ride devoid of all
interest. There is very little water in this "traversia," and
The Voyage of the Beagle |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: and she was glad exceedingly -- for that Nanigashi house is a very rich and
famous house. But the servants said that the family of Nanigashi-Sama were
very angry about the word 'Baka' on the child's hand. 'And where is your
Riki buried?' the servants asked. 'He is buried in the cemetery of
Zendoji,' she told them. 'Please to give us some of the clay of his grave,'
they requested.
"So she went with them to the temple Zendoji, and showed them Riki's
grave; and they took some of the grave-clay away with them, wrapped up in a
furoshiki [1].... They gave Riki's mother some money,-- ten yen."... (4)
"But what did they want with that clay?" I inquired.
"Well," the old man answered, "you know that it would not do to let the
Kwaidan |
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 Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: Such doubts and fears were common to her state,
Being with child: but when her child was born,
Then her new child was as herself renew'd,
Then the new mother came about her heart,
Then her good Philip was her all-in-all,
And that mysterious instinct wholly died.
And where was Enoch? prosperously sail'd
The ship `Good Fortune,' tho' at setting forth
The Biscay, roughly ridging eastward, shook
And almost overwhelm'd her, yet unvext
She slipt across the summer of the world,
|
