| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The United States Bill of Rights: III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house,
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war,
but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,
and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath
or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched,
and the persons or things to be seized.
V
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: waste-paper basket.
Take for an illustration the story of Elisha and the bears. To the
authors of the moral instruction books it is in the last degree
reprehensible. It is obviously not true as a record of fact; and the
picture it gives us of the temper of God (which is what interests an
adult reader) is shocking and blasphemous. But it is a capital story
for a child. It interests a child because it is about bears; and it
leaves the child with an impression that children who poke fun at old
gentlemen and make rude remarks about bald heads are not nice
children, which is a highly desirable impression, and just as much as
a child is capable of receiving from the story. When a story is about
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: the parents storming, the attendants laughing, the bishop puffing
and blowing, and the knight rubbing his gouty foot, and uttering
doleful lamentations for the gold and jewels with which he had
so unwittingly adorned and cowered the bride.
CHAPTER XIV
As ye came from the holy land
Of blessed Walsinghame,
Oh met ye not with my true love,
As by the way ye came?--Old Ballad.
In pursuance of the arrangement recorded in the twelfth chapter,
the baron, Robin, and Marian disguised themselves as pilgrims
|
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 The American by Henry James: she had been looking at the world since she was ten years old,
and he would have been a wise man who could tell her any secrets.
In her long mornings at the Louvre she had not only studied Madonnas
and St. Johns; she had kept an eye upon all the variously embodied
human nature around her, and she had formed her conclusions.
In a certain sense, it seemed to Newman, M. Nioche might be at rest;
his daughter might do something very audacious, but she would never
do anything foolish. Newman, with his long-drawn, leisurely smile,
and his even, unhurried utterance, was always, mentally, taking his time;
and he asked himself, now, what she was looking at him in that way for.
He had an idea that she would like him to confess that he did think
|
