| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: peeps in, and when he sees no one there, in he goes, and out I go,
and shut to the door, and back a cart that was there up against it,
and call out one of the men to watch the stable, and the girl's
crying like mad."
"What a fool's trick, man! How do you know that he is not some
honest gentleman, after all?"
"Fool or none, sir; honest gentlemen don't give maidens Agnuses.
I've put him in; and if you want him let out again, you must come
and do it yourself, for my conscience is against it, sir. If the
Lord's enemies are delivered into my hand, I'm answerable, sir,"
went on Yeo as Amyas hurried out with him. "'Tis written, 'If any
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: and this one is imposing on you! Remember the Island of Bones, and
Xanthippus, whom they sent back to Sparta in a rotten galley!"
"How are we to proceed?" they asked.
"Reflect!" said Spendius.
The two following days were spent in paying the men of Magdala,
Leptis, and Hecatompylos; Spendius went about among the Gauls.
"They are paying off the Libyans, and then they will discharge the
Greeks, the Balearians, the Asiatics and all the rest! But you, who
are few in number, will receive nothing! You will see your native
lands no more! You will have no ships, and they will kill you to save
your food!"
Salammbo |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: Blush heavens, blush sun, and hide thy shining beams;
Shadow thy radiant locks in gloomy clouds;
Deny thy cheerful light unto the world,
Where nothing reigns but falsehood and deceit.
What said I? falsehood? Aye, that filthy crime,
For Locrine hath forsaken Gwendoline.
Behold the heavens do wail for Gwendoline.
The shining sun doth blush for Gwendoline.
The liquid air doth weep for Gwendoline.
The very ground doth groan for Gwendoline.
Aye, they are milder than the Brittain king,
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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 Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: became convinced that a city had stood upon the spot at some
time in the past, and that beneath our feet, crumbled and
dead, lay ancient Devonport.
I could not repress a sigh at the thought of the havoc war
had wrought in this part of England, at least. Farther
east, nearer London, we should find things very different.
There would be the civilization that two centuries must have
wrought upon our English cousins as they had upon us. There
would be mighty cities, cultivated fields, happy people.
There we would be welcomed as long-lost brothers. There
would we find a great nation anxious to learn of the world
Lost Continent |
