| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: only seven possible dramatic situations; that is, all the
plays in the world may be classed with some one of seven
archetypal dramas.[109] If this be true, the astonishing
complexity of mythology taken in the concrete, as compared
with its extreme simplicity when analyzed, need not surprise
us.
[109] In his interesting appendix to Henderson's Folk Lore of
the Northern Counties of England, Mr. Baring-Gould has made an
ingenious and praiseworthy attempt to reduce the entire
existing mass of household legends to about fifty story-roots;
and his list, though both redundant and defective, is
Myths and Myth-Makers |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: learning: and on the 23rd an eminent goldsmith in Lombard-Street.
I could mention others, both at home and abroad, if I did not
consider it is of very little use or instruction to the reader,
or to the world.
As to publick affairs: On the 7th of this month there will be an
insurrection in Dauphine, occasion'd by the oppressions of the
people, which will not be quieted in some months.
On the 15th will be a violent storm on the south-east coast of
France, which will destroy many of their ships, and some in the
very harbour.
The 19th will be famous for the revolt of a whole province or
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: turns on the humours of the persons represented; these are, to be
sure, embodied in incidents, but the incidents themselves, being
tributary, need not march in a progression; and the characters may
be statically shown. As they enter, so they may go out; they must
be consistent, but they need not grow. Here Mr. James will
recognise the note of much of his own work: he treats, for the most
part, the statics of character, studying it at rest or only gently
moved; and, with his usual delicate and just artistic instinct, he
avoids those stronger passions which would deform the attitudes he
loves to study, and change his sitters from the humorists of
ordinary life to the brute forces and bare types of more emotional
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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 Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: of fish observe, that there be several sorts or kinds of Eels; as the silver
Eel, the green or greenish Eel, with which the river of Thames abounds,
and those are called Grigs; and a blackish Eel, whose head is more flat
and bigger than ordinary Eels; and also an Eel whose fins are reddish,
and but seldom taken in this nation, and yet taken sometimes. These
several kind of Eels are, say some, diversely bred; as, namely, out of the
corruption of the earth; and some by dew, and other ways, as I have
said to you: and yet it is affirmed by some for a certain, that the silver
Eel is bred by generation, but not by spawning as other fish do; but that
her brood come alive from her, being then little live Eels no bigger nor
longer than a pin; and I have had too many testimonies of this, to doubt
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