| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: praise of having been the first among the Italian ladies, by whom
the vernacular poetry was cultivated. Ibid. p. 137.
CANTO XVII
v. 21. The bird, that most Delights itself in song.]
I cannot think with Vellutello, that the swallow is here meant.
Dante probably alludes to the story of Philomela, as it is found
in Homer's Odyssey, b. xix. 518 rather than as later poets have
told it. "She intended to slay the son of her husband's brother
Amphion, incited to it, by the envy of his wife, who had six
children, while herself had only two, but through mistake slew
her own son Itylus, and for her punishment was transformed by
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: until he is out of breath. When he comes to ride with the
king's pardon, he must bestride a chair, which he will so
hurry and belabour and on which he will so furiously demean
himself, that the messenger will arrive, if not bloody with
spurring, at least fiery red with haste. If his romance
involves an accident upon a cliff, he must clamber in person
about the chest of drawers and fall bodily upon the carpet,
before his imagination is satisfied. Lead soldiers, dolls,
all toys, in short, are in the same category and answer the
same end. Nothing can stagger a child's faith; he accepts the
clumsiest substitutes and can swallow the most staring
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: are egoistic. For the satisfaction of the needs of the organization, these
actions, conducive to the welfare of others, must be carried on...
. . . . . . . .
"So far from its being true that there must go on, throughout all the futur
e, a condition in which self-regard is to be continually subjected by the
regard for others, it will, contrari-wise, be the case that a regard for
others will eventually become so large a source of pleasure as to overgrow
the pleasure which is derivable from direct egoistic gratification...
Eventually, then, there will come also a state in which egoism and altruism
are so conciliated that the one merges in the other."
VI
Kwaidan |
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 Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: white-fanged, yellow brute. All an Inuit has to do is to get
food and skins for himself and his family. The women-folk make
the skins into clothing, and occasionally help in trapping small
game; but the bulk of the food--and they eat enormously--must be
found by the men. If the supply fails there is no one up there
to buy or beg or borrow from. The people must die.
An Inuit does not think of these chances till he is forced to.
Kadlu, Kotuko, Amoraq, and the boy-baby who kicked about in
Amoraq's fur hood and chewed pieces of blubber all day, were as
happy together as any family in the world. They came of a very
gentle race--an Inuit seldom loses his temper, and almost never
The Second Jungle Book |
