| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: Simon took the stick which Harry was holding, fixed his lamp
to the end of it, and raised it high above his head, up to where
the gas, by reason of its buoyancy, would naturally accumulate.
The flame of the lamp, burning straight and clear, revealed no
trace of the carburetted hydrogen.
"Close to the wall," said the engineer.
"Yes," responded Ford, carrying the lamp to that part
of the wall at which he and his son had, the evening before,
proved the escape of gas.
The old miner's arm trembled whilst he tried to hoist the lamp up.
"Take my place, Harry," said he.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: for they had many wives and sons.
CH1 7:5 And their brethren among all the families of Issachar were
valiant men of might, reckoned in all by their genealogies fourscore and
seven thousand.
CH1 7:6 The sons of Benjamin; Bela, and Becher, and Jediael, three.
CH1 7:7 And the sons of Bela; Ezbon, and Uzzi, and Uzziel, and
Jerimoth, and Iri, five; heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men
of valour; and were reckoned by their genealogies twenty and two
thousand and thirty and four.
CH1 7:8 And the sons of Becher; Zemira, and Joash, and Eliezer, and
Elioenai, and Omri, and Jerimoth, and Abiah, and Anathoth, and Alameth.
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Before Adam by Jack London: back to a past so remote as to be contemporaneous with
the raw beginnings of mankind.
For in this past I know of, man, as we to-day know him,
did not exist. It was in the period of his becoming
that I must have lived and had my being.
CHAPTER III
The commonest dream of my early childhood was something
like this: It seemed that I was very small and that I
lay curled up in a sort of nest of twigs and boughs.
Sometimes I was lying on my back. In this position it
seemed that I spent many hours, watching the play of
|
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 Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: lessen those evils, declares that inquisition, or view, for lawing
dogs, shall be made every third year, and shall be then done by
the view and testimony of lawful men, not otherwise; and they
whose dogs shall be then found unlawed, shall give three shillings
for mercy, and for the future no man's ox shall be taken
for lawing. Such lawing also shall be done by the assize commonly
used, and which is, that three claws shall be cut off without
the ball of the right foot. See on this subject the Historical
Essay on the Magna Charta of King John, (a most beautiful
volume), by Richard Thomson.
NOTE TO CHAPTER II.
Ivanhoe |
