| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: "'Can't you ask a neighbour to come in to-
night?' I asked.
"'Please, sir, nobody seems to care to come,' she
muttered, dully resigned all at once.
"I impressed upon her the necessity of the
greatest care, and then had to go. There was a
good deal of sickness that winter. 'Oh, I hope he
won't talk!' she exclaimed softly just as I was go-
ing away.
"I don't know how it is I did not see--but I
didn't. And yet, turning in my trap, I saw her
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: open air. Besides, it is easy to rear the Lycosa and her family in
a wire-gauze cage, with a layer of earth wherein the captive will
never dream of sinking a well, such work being out of season.
Everything then happens in the open.
Well, while the mother munches, chews, expresses the juices and
swallows, the youngsters do not budge from their camping-ground on
her back. Not one quits its place nor gives a sign of wishing to
slip down and join in the meal. Nor does the mother extend an
invitation to them to come and recruit themselves, nor put any
broken victuals aside for them. She feeds and the others look on,
or rather remain indifferent to what is happening. Their perfect
The Life of the Spider |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: him a body resurrected from the grave. His once energetic face,
stripped of its sinister aspect by old age and suffering, was ghastly
in color, matching the long meshes of white hair which fell around his
bald head, the yellow skull of which seemed softening. The warrior and
the fanatic still shone in those yellow eyes, tempered now by
religious sentiment. Devotion had cast a monastic tone upon the face,
formerly so hard, but now marked with tints which softened its
expression. The reflections of the setting sun colored with a faintly
ruddy tinge the head, which, in spite of all infirmities, was still
vigorous. The feeble body, wrapped in brown garments, gave, by its
heavy attitude and the absence of all movement, a vivid impression of
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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 Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her fair pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell:
For being both to me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell:
The truth I shall not know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
III.
Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,
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