| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: first he showed and steadily maintained his advantage over the
older man. "Hah! well struck! well recovered!" "Look ye! the
sword bit that time!" "Nay, look, saw ye him pass the point of
the gisarm?" Then, "Falworth! Falworth!" as some more than
usually skilful stroke or parry occurred.
Meantime Myles's father sat straining his sightless eyeballs, as
though to pierce his body's darkness with one ray of light that
would show him how his boy held his own in the fight, and Lord
Mackworth, leaning with his lips close to the blind man's ear,
told him point by point how the battle stood.
"Fear not, Gilbert," said he at each pause in the fight. "He
Men of Iron |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: "Look here!" I opened a drawer and took out three sovereigns.
"Take this anyhow. I've got six and I'd give you the lot,
only I must keep a little money to buy some fruit and vegetables
for the crew from native boats as we go through Sunda Straits."
He shook his head.
"Take it," I urged him, whispering desperately.
"No one can tell what--"
He smiled and slapped meaningly the only pocket of the sleeping jacket.
It was not safe, certainly. But I produced a large old silk handkerchief
of mine, and tying the three pieces of gold in a corner, pressed it on him.
He was touched, I supposed, because he took it at last and tied it quickly
The Secret Sharer |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: to the fact that I have been able to come home to my wife in
the evening and to find that she has spent her day in calling,
music, play with the children, domestic duties--what you will;
her illusions have not been destroyed. She gives me courage to go on.
The strain of public life is very great," he added.
This made him appear a battered martyr, parting every day with some
of the finest gold, in the service of mankind.
"I can't think," Rachel exclaimed, "how any one does it!"
"Explain, Miss Vinrace," said Richard. "This is a matter I want
to clear up."
His kindness was genuine, and she determined to take the chance he
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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 The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: region as we hear them, but we cannot use them ourselves; it
alone has the keeping of "the password primeval."[280]
[279] Compare the extracts from Dr. Bucke, quoted on pp. 398,
399.
[280] As serious an attempt as I know to mediate between the
mystical region and the discursive life is contained in an
article on Aristotle's Unmoved Mover, by F. C. S. Schiller, in
Mind, vol. ix., 1900.
I have now sketched with extreme brevity and insufficiency, but
as fairly as I am able in the time allowed, the general traits of
the mystic range of consciousness. It is on the whole
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