| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: And when Quincey give him something from his pocket which crackle
as he roll it up, and put it in a so small bag which he have hid deep
in his clothing, he still better fellow and humble servant to us.
He come with us, and ask many men who are rough and hot.
These be better fellows too when they have been no more thirsty.
They say much of blood and bloom, and of others which I comprehend not,
though I guess what they mean. But nevertheless they tell us all
things which we want to know.
"They make known to us among them, how last afternoon at about
five o'clock comes a man so hurry. A tall man, thin and pale,
with high nose and teeth so white, and eyes that seem to be burning.
Dracula |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: Nothing remained but for the Corinthians and Argives to carry away
their dead under cover of a truce; whilst the allies of Lacedaemon
poured in their reinforcements. When these were collected, Praxitas
decided in the first place to raze enough of the walls to allow a free
broadway for an army on march. This done, he put himself at the head
of his troops and advanced on the road to Megara, taking by assault,
first Sidus and next Crommyon. Leaving garrisons in these two
fortresses, he retraced his steps, and finally fortifying Epieiceia as
a garrison outpost to protect the territory of the allies, he at once
disbanded his troops and himself withdrew to Lacedaemon.
[11] Or, "Heaven assigned to them a work . . ." Lit. "The God . . ."
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: to live in perpetual peace, each inviolate within its own boundaries. For
in that case each would still be a self-contained universe, freed for ever
from the sobering influence of external danger. A peace that was truly
permanent would be the same as a permanent war. This--although the vast
majority of Party members understand it only in a shallower sense--is the
inner meaning of the Party slogan: WAR IS PEACE.
Winston stopped reading for a moment. Somewhere in remote distance a
rocket bomb thundered. The blissful feeling of being alone with the
forbidden book, in a room with no telescreen, had not worn off. Solitude
and safety were physical sensations, mixed up somehow with the tiredness
of his body, the softness of the chair, the touch of the faint breeze from
1984 |
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 Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: sufficiently repay. . . Well, I have been paying ever since."
"What do you mean?" asked Mills softly. "In hard cash?"
"Oh, it's really so little," she said. "I told you it wasn't the
worst case. I stayed on in that house from which I nearly ran away
in my nightgown. I stayed on because I didn't know what to do
next. He vanished as he had come on the track of something else, I
suppose. You know he really has got to get his living some way or
other. But don't think I was deserted. On the contrary. People
were coming and going, all sorts of people that Henry Allegre used
to know - or had refused to know. I had a sensation of plotting
and intriguing around me, all the time. I was feeling morally
The Arrow of Gold |
