| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: wolf. There was a moon, and she saw the father casting her son into
the water; her son, the child of her womb, and as there was no wind,
she heard BLOUF! and then nothing--neither sound nor bubble. Ah! the
sea is a fine keeper of what it gets. Rowing inshore to stop his
wife's cries, Cambremer found her half-dead. The two brothers couldn't
carry her the whole distance home, so they had to put her into the
boat which had just served to kill her son, and they rowed back round
the tower by the channel of Croisic. Well, well! the belle Brouin, as
they called her, didn't last a week. She died begging her husband to
burn that accursed boat. Oh, he did it! As for him, he became I don't
know what; he staggered about like a man who can't carry his wine.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: thoughtfully. "Ozma will see him 'bout it, of
course, and then she'll punish him. But how,
I don't know, 'cause no one ever has been
punished in Oz since I knew anything about
the place. Too bad, Shaggy Man, isn't it?"
While they were talking Scraps had been
roaming around the room and looking at all
the pretty things it contained. She had carried
Ojo's basket in her hand, until now, when she
decided to see what was inside it. She found
the bread and cheese, which she had no use for,
The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: waiting for the old lady to swallow the dose. I candidly admit
indeed that at the time - for I heard from her repeatedly - I read
some singular things into Gwendolen's words and some still more
extraordinary ones into her silences. Pen in hand, this way, I
live the time over, and it brings back the oddest sense of my
having been, both for months and in spite of myself, a kind of
coerced spectator. All my life had taken refuge in my eyes, which
the procession of events appeared to have committed itself to keep
astare. There were days when I thought of writing to Hugh Vereker
and simply throwing myself on his charity. But I felt more deeply
that I hadn't fallen quite so low - besides which, quite properly,
|
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 Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey: contrast making more necessary and desirable and elevating the comforts and
conventions of civilization. The cave man theory interested Carley only as
mythology.
Lonelier, wilder, grander grew Glenn's canyon. Carley was finally forced to
shift her attention from the intimate objects of the canyon floor to the
aloof and unattainable heights. Singular to feel the difference! That which
she could see close at hand, touch if she willed, seemed to, become part of
her knowledge, could be observed and so possessed and passed by. But the
gold-red ramparts against the sky, the crannied cliffs, the crags of the
eagles, the lofty, distant blank walls, where the winds of the gods had
written their wars--these haunted because they could never be possessed.
The Call of the Canyon |
