| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: "And I shall sleep all the sounder for making a convert."
"You have dispensed roadside alms," said the Padre, smiling, "and that
should win excellent dreams."
Thus, with courtesies more elaborate than the world has time for at the
present day, they bade each other good-night and parted, bearing their
late candles along the quiet halls of the mission. To young Gaston in his
bed easy sleep came without waiting, and no dreams at ail. Outside his
open window was the quiet, serene darkness, where the stars shone clear,
and tranquil perfumes hung in the cloisters. But while the guest lay
sleeping all night in unchanged position like a child, up and down
between the oleanders went Padre Ignacio, walking until dawn. Temptation
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: have seen you and thank you for many things. But we do not wish
to see you any more."
"Good-bye, Marama," I answered. "What you say, we echo. At
least you have now no great lump upon your neck and we have rid
you of your wizards. But beware of the god Oro who dwells in the
mountain, for if you anger him he will sink your island beneath
the sea."
"And remember all that I have taught you," shouted Bastin.
Marama shivered, though whether at the mention of the god Oro,
of whose powers the Orofenans had so painful a recollection, or
at the result of Bastin's teachings, I do not know. And that was
When the World Shook |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: like one another, and friends to one another; and that the bad, as is often
said of them, are never at unity with one another or with themselves; for
they are passionate and restless, and anything which is at variance and
enmity with itself is not likely to be in union or harmony with any other
thing. Do you not agree?
Yes, I do.
Then, my friend, those who say that the like is friendly to the like mean
to intimate, if I rightly apprehend them, that the good only is the friend
of the good, and of him only; but that the evil never attains to any real
friendship, either with good or evil. Do you agree?
He nodded assent.
Lysis |
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 Critias by Plato: herbage, or woods, or essences which distil from fruit and flower, grew and
thrived in that land; also the fruit which admits of cultivation, both the
dry sort, which is given us for nourishment and any other which we use for
food--we call them all by the common name of pulse, and the fruits having a
hard rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments, and good store of
chestnuts and the like, which furnish pleasure and amusement, and are
fruits which spoil with keeping, and the pleasant kinds of dessert, with
which we console ourselves after dinner, when we are tired of eating--all
these that sacred island which then beheld the light of the sun, brought
forth fair and wondrous and in infinite abundance. With such blessings the
earth freely furnished them; meanwhile they went on constructing their
|
