| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: instructions."
"And gave the money to my sister," Sylvester chuckled at their
surprise. "My sister was taught in a French convent, and she is
an excellent seamstress, when she isn't drunk, as Mrs. McIntyre
knows."
"See here, Sylvester," Clymer broke his long silence. "You were in
the police court on a charge of assault and battery brought by your
wife on Tuesday morning, and you were in the prisoner's cage at the
moment Turnbull died. How then was it possible for you to be at the
McIntyre's at midnight on Monday?"
"I was out on bail and appeared in the courtroom just in time for my
The Red Seal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: also was so warm and serene that nothing was wanting to make a
paradise of that meadow. When we reflected that this was not a
solitary phenomenon, never to happen again, but that it would
happen forever and ever, an infinite number of evenings, and
cheer and reassure the latest child that walked there, it was
more glorious still.
The sun sets on some retired meadow, where no house is visible,
with all the glory and splendor that it lavishes on cities, and
perchance as it has never set before--where there is but a
solitary marsh hawk to have his wings gilded by it, or only a
musquash looks out from his cabin, and there is some little
Walking |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: "Dewel, the great god in heaven (dewa, deus), is rather feared
than loved by these weather-beaten outcasts, for he harms them
on their wanderings with his thunder and lightning, his snow
and rain, and his stars interfere with their dark doings.
Therefore they curse him foully when misfortune falls on them;
and when a child dies, they say that Dewel has eaten it."
Tylor, Primitive Culture, Vol. II. p. 248.
[97] See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 939.
[98] The Buddhistic as well as the Zarathustrian reformation
degraded the Vedic gods into demons. "In Buddhism we find
these ancient devas, Indra and the rest, carried about at
Myths and Myth-Makers |
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 Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: his teeth, it was inferred that they were not unacquainted.
The Ineffective Rooter
A DRUNKEN Man was lying in the road with a bleeding nose, upon
which he had fallen, when a Pig passed that way.
"You wallow fairly well," said the Pig, "but, my fine fellow, you
have much to learn about rooting."
A Protagonist of Silver
SOME Financiers who were whetting their tongues on their teeth
because the Government had "struck down" silver, and were about to
"inaugurate" a season of sweatshed, were addressed as follows by a
Member of their honourable and warlike body:
Fantastic Fables |
