| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: name? Knowest thou not that I am Emperor of this city?" But I
made him no answer.
'He pointed with his finger at the scimitar, and the Nubian seized
it, and rushing forward struck at me with great violence. The
blade whizzed through me, and did me no hurt. The man fell
sprawling on the floor, and when he rose up his teeth chattered
with terror and he hid himself behind the couch.
'The Emperor leapt to his feet, and taking a lance from a stand of
arms, he threw it at me. I caught it in its flight, and brake the
shaft into two pieces. He shot at me with an arrow, but I held up
my hands and it stopped in mid-air. Then he drew a dagger from a
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell: law of society, there is so much to say about it that it hardly can
be touched incidentally. The more we study the question, the
more we are brought to the conclusion that society itself is
responsible for the anti-social deeds perpetrated in its midst, and
that no punishment, no prisons, and no hangmen can diminish
the numbers of such deeds; nothing short of a reorganization of
society itself. Three-quarters of all the acts which are brought
every year before our courts have their origin, either directly or
indirectly, in the present disorganized state of society with
regard to the production and distribution of wealth--not in the
perversity of human nature. As to the relatively few anti-social
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: mind, and got off to sea again by daylight on the morrow. 'It was
always a bad place, Atuona,' commented Mr. Stewart, in his homely
Fifeshire voice. In spite of this dire introduction, he accepted
the captain's offer, was landed at Taahauku with three Chinamen,
and proceeded to clear the jungle.
War was pursued at that time, almost without interval, between the
men of Atuona and the men of Haamau; and one day, from the opposite
sides of the valley, battle - or I should rather say the noise of
battle - raged all the afternoon: the shots and insults of the
opposing clans passing from hill to hill over the heads of Mr.
Stewart and his Chinamen. There was no genuine fighting; it was
|
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 Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: across the water. 'But it's best,' he went on suddenly, 'after the
first frosts. You roll out o' your blanket and find every leaf left
green over night turned red and yellow, not by trees at a time, but
hundreds and hundreds of miles of 'em, like sunsets splattered
upside down. On one of such days - the maples was flaming
scarlet and gold, and the sumach bushes were redder - Cornplanter
and Red Jacket came out in full war-dress, making the
very leaves look silly: feathered war-bonnets, yellow doeskin
leggings, fringed and tasselled, red horse-blankets, and their
bridles feathered and shelled and beaded no bounds. I thought it
was war against the British till I saw their faces weren't painted,
|
