The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: obliquely into the rich plain before them, bathing with rosy
splendour the leafless, snow-sprinkled trees, and fading
gradually into shadow in the distance. To the south, too,
they beheld a deep-shaded amphitheatre of heather and
bracken; the course of the Esk, near Penicuik, winding about
at the foot of its gorge; the broad, brown expanse of Maw
Moss; and, fading into blue indistinctness in the south, the
wild heath-clad Peeblesshire hills. In sooth, that scene was
fair, and many a yearning glance was cast over that peaceful
evening scene from the spot where the rebels awaited their
defeat; and when the fight was over, many a noble fellow
|
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 Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: followed by a few superior officers appointed to preside at
the execution and attended by two files of partisans who
took their places on opposite sides of the scaffold.
The sight of the masked man gave rise to a prolonged
sensation. Every one was full of curiosity as to who that
unknown executioner could be who presented himself so
opportunely to assure to the people the promised spectacle,
when the people believed it had been postponed until the
following day. All gazed at him searchingly.
But they could discern nothing but a man of middle height,
dressed in black, apparently of a certain age, for the end
Twenty Years After |