| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: sides; and indeed we may say that Fleeming was exceptionally
favoured, and that no boy had ever a companion more innocent,
engaging, gay, and airy. But although in this case it would be
easy to exaggerate its import, yet, in the Jenkin family also, the
tragedy of the generations was proceeding, and the child was
growing out of his father's knowledge. His artistic aptitude was
of a different order. Already he had his quick sight of many sides
of life; he already overflowed with distinctions and
generalisations, contrasting the dramatic art and national
character of England, Germany, Italy, and France. If he were dull,
he would write stories and poems. 'I have written,' he says at
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: father's literary career, acknowledged his enormous talents, and
never thought of rivalry with him. From the moment when, as early
as 1854, he wrote to Kolbásina, "If Heaven only grant
Tolstoy life, I confidently hope that he will surprise us all," he
never ceased to follow my father's work with interest, and always
expressed his unbounded admiration of it.
"When this young wine has done fermenting," he wrote to
Druzhénin in 1856, "the result will be a liquor worthy of
the gods." In 1857 he wrote to Polónsky, "This man will go
far, and leave deep traces behind him."
Nevertheless, somehow these two men never could "hit it off"
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: closely for a full month, I hate it more than ever. I never
imagined a quarter of its waste, its boredom, its futility, its
desolation. It is merely a destructive and dispersive instead of
a constructive and accumulative industrialism. It is a gigantic,
dusty, muddy, weedy, bloodstained silliness. It is the plain
duty of every man to give his life and all that he has if by so
doing he may help to end it. I hate Germany, which has thrust
this experience upon mankind, as I hate some horrible infectious
disease. The new war, the war on the modern level, is her
invention and her crime. I perceive that on our side and in its
broad outlines, this war is nothing more than a gigantic and
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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 Poems of William Blake by William Blake: Descend O little cloud & hover before the eyes of Thel.
The Cloud descended and the Lily bowd her modest head:
And went to mind her numerous charge among the verdant grass.
II.
O little Cloud the virgin said, I charge thee to tell me
Why thou complainest now when in one hour thou fade away:
Then we shall seek thee but not find: ah Thel is like to thee.
I pass away, yet I complain, and no one hears my voice.
The Cloud then shewd his golden head & his bright form emerg'd.
Hovering and glittering on the air before the face of Thel.
O virgin know'st thou not our steeds drink of the golden springs
Poems of William Blake |
