| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and children that we were, bemoaning the unkind fate that was to
see us safely into France on the morrow without a glimpse of the
dread marauders. We were young; we craved thrills, and God knows
we got them that day; yet by comparison with that through which I
have since passed they were as tame as a Punch-and-Judy show.
I shall never forget the ashy faces of the passengers as they
stampeded for their life-belts, though there was no panic.
Nobs rose with a low growl. I rose, also, and over the ship's
side, I saw not two hundred yards distant the periscope of a
submarine, while racing toward the liner the wake of a torpedo
was distinctly visible. We were aboard an American ship--which,
The Land that Time Forgot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: imagine, during this time I made a close study of many small personal
matters, which have more to do with love than is generally supposed.
In spite of my coldness, Louis grew bolder, and his nature expanded. I
saw on his face a new expression, a look of youth. The greater
refinement which I introduced into the house was reflected in his
person. Insensibly I became accustomed to his presence, and made
another self of him. By dint of constant watching I discovered how his
mind and countenance harmonize. "The animal that we call a husband,"
to quote your words, disappeared, and one balmy evening I discovered
in his stead a lover, whose words thrilled me and on whose arm I leant
with pleasure beyond words. In short, to be open with you, as I would
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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 Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: the constitutive assembly, simply the struggle between republicans and
royalists; the movement itself was summed up by them in the catch-word
Reaction--night, in which all cats are grey, and allows them to drawl
out their drowsy commonplaces. Indeed, at first sight, the party of
Order presents the appearance of a tangle of royalist factions, that,
not only intrigue against each other, each aiming to raise its own
Pretender to the throne, and exclude the Pretender of the Opposite
party, but also are all united in a common hatred for and common attacks
against the "Republic." On its side, the Mountain appears, in
counter-distinction to the royalist conspiracy, as the representative of
the "Republic." The party of Order seems constantly engaged in a
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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 Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: is almost ready to identify Catherine as the niece of Pierre;
Regnier as the nephew of Etienne, and Colin as the son of
Nicolas. Without going so far, it must be owned that the
approximation of names is significant. As we go on to see
the part played by each of these persons in the sordid
melodrama of the poet's life, we shall come to regard it as
even more notable. Is it not Clough who has remarked that,
after all, everything lies in juxtaposition? Many a man's
destiny has been settled by nothing apparently more grave
than a pretty face on the opposite side of the street and a
couple of bad companions round the corner.
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