| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: nothing else; so it was with a sense of relief that he now
definitely abandoned it and all that it stood for, and went
forth into the jungle once again stripped to his loin cloth and
weapons.
The hunting knife of his father hung at his left hip, his bow
and his quiver of arrows were slung across his shoulders,
while around his chest over one shoulder and beneath the
opposite arm was coiled the long grass rope without which
Tarzan would have felt quite as naked as would you should
you be suddenly thrust upon a busy highway clad only in a
union suit. A heavy war spear which he sometimes carried in
Tarzan the Untamed |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: company. This hare-brained carriage obliged them to consider
seriously what was to be done. The two Englishmen and the Spaniard
who saved the poor savage were of the opinion that they should hang
one of the three for an example to the rest, and that particularly
it should be he that had twice attempted to commit murder with his
hatchet; indeed, there was some reason to believe he had done it,
for the poor savage was in such a miserable condition with the
wound he had received that it was thought he could not live. But
the governor Spaniard still said No; it was an Englishman that had
saved all their lives, and he would never consent to put an
Englishman to death, though he had murdered half of them; nay, he
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: the slightest degree, depend on their facts, but on their Truth,
and Truth is independent of facts always, inventing or selecting
them at pleasure. But still Shakespeare's use of facts is a most
interesting part of his method of work, and shows us his attitude
towards the stage, and his relations to the great art of illusion.
Indeed he would have been very much surprised at any one classing
his plays with 'fairy tales,' as Lord Lytton does; for one of his
aims was to create for England a national historical drama, which
should deal with incidents with which the public was well
acquainted, and with heroes that lived in the memory of a people.
Patriotism, I need hardly say, is not a necessary quality of art;
|
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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: brother, might attempt some rescue, or make themselves formidable in
other ways. Therefore, as a matter of precaution, they had been put
under arrest and their arms taken from them as mine had been. What the
commandant said, however, was that he took these somewhat high-handed
measures in order to be sure that they, the Prinsloos and the Meyers,
should be ready on the following morning to ride with him and the
prisoner to the main camp, where the great council might wish to
interrogate them.
One concession, however, the vrouw had won from the commandant, who,
knowing what was about to happen to me, had not, I suppose, the heart to
refuse. It was that my wife and she might visit me and give me food on
Marie |
