| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: But it is with neither of these composite forms of mother that any story
deals.
"Ethel has always maintained that if I had really understood her, it
never would have happened. She says--"
"Richard, I"--
"My dear, you shall tell your story afterwards, and I promise to listen
without a word until you are finished. Mrs. Field says that if I had
understood her nature as a man ought to understand the girl he has been
thinking about for several years, I should have known she cared nothing
about my income."
"I didn't care! I'd have"--but Mr. Field checked her outburst.
|
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 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: with its amazing confidence before it vanished altogether.
This was because it could speak English to me. The original
Kurtz had been educated partly in England, and--as he was good
enough to say himself--his sympathies were in the right place.
His mother was half-English, his father was half-French. All
Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz; and by and by I
learned that, most appropriately, the International Society
for the Suppression of Savage Customs had intrusted him
with the making of a report, for its future guidance.
And he had written it, too. I've seen it. I've read it.
It was eloquent, vibrating with eloquence, but too high-strung,
Heart of Darkness |
