| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: Samoans, these were supplied, inspired, and marshalled by Americans
and English.
The legend was the more easily believed because it embraced and was
founded upon so much truth. Germans lay dead, the German wounded
groaned in their cots; and the cartridges by which they fell had
been sold by an American and brought into the country in a British
bottom. Had the transaction been entirely mercenary, it would
already have been hard to swallow; but it was notoriously not so.
British and Americans were notoriously the partisans of Mataafa.
They rejoiced in the result of Fangalii, and so far from seeking to
conceal their rejoicing, paraded and displayed it. Calumny ran
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: really is as though the composer had had no other object in view than
to produce a baroque effect without troubling himself about musical
truth or unity, or about the capabilities of human voices which are
swamped by this flood of instrumental noise."
"Silence, my friend!" cried Gambara. "I am still under the spell of
that glorious chorus of hell, made still more terrible by the long
trumpets,--a new method of instrumentation. The broken /cadenzas/
which give such force to Robert's scene, the /cavatina/ in the fourth
act, the /finale/ of the first, all hold me in the grip of a
supernatural power. No, not even Gluck's declamation ever produced so
prodigious an effect, and I am amazed by such skill and learning."
Gambara |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: bronchitis and just left the infirmary? Who'll engage him, I'd like to
know? Besides, it makes me short of breath at times, and I can't do
much. I'm a widower; wife died long ago. I have one boy, abroad, a
sailor, but he's only lately started and can't help me. Yes! its very
fair out here of nights, seats rather hard, but a bit of waste paper
makes it a lot softer. We have women sleep here often, and children,
too. They're very well conducted, and there's seldom many rows here,
you see, because everybody's tired out. We're too sleepy to make a
row."
Another party, a tall, dull, helpless-looking individual, had walked up
from the country; would prefer not to mention the place. He had hoped
In Darkest England and The Way Out |
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 Sophist by Plato: and unutterable, in using each of these words in the singular, did I not
refer to not-being as one?
THEAETETUS: Certainly.
STRANGER: And yet we say that, strictly speaking, it should not be defined
as one or many, and should not even be called 'it,' for the use of the word
'it' would imply a form of unity.
THEAETETUS: Quite true.
STRANGER: How, then, can any one put any faith in me? For now, as always,
I am unequal to the refutation of not-being. And therefore, as I was
saying, do not look to me for the right way of speaking about not-being;
but come, let us try the experiment with you.
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