| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: All this while I had spoken to Umslopogaas in a feigned voice, my
father, but now I spoke again and in my own voice, saying:--
"So! Now you speak from your heart, young man, and by digging I have
reached the root of the matter. It is because of this dead dog of a
Mopo that you defy the king."
Umslopogaas heard the voice, and trembled no more with anger, but
rather with fear and wonder. He looked at me hard, answering nothing.
"Have you a hut near by, O Chief Bulalio, foe of Dingaan the king,
where I, the mouth of the king, may speak with you a while apart, for
I would learn your message word by word that I may deliver it without
fault. Fear not, Slaughterer, to sit alone with me in an empty hut! I
Nada the Lily |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: my man?" The tailor had come in while he was speaking.
"Well, it's been a doubling so many years, you see," the tailor
replied, a little gruffly, "and I think I'd like the money now.
It's two thousand pound, it is!"
"Oh, that's nothing!" the Professor carelessly remarked, feeling in his
pocket, as if he always carried at least that amount about with him.
"But wouldn't you like to wait just another year, and make it four
thousand? Just think how rich you'd be! Why, you might be a King,
if you liked!"
"I don't know as I'd care about being a King," the man said
thoughtfully. "But it; dew sound a powerful sight o' money!
Sylvie and Bruno |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: Aksinya, a handsome woman with a good figure, who wore a hat and
carried a parasol on holidays, got up early and went to bed late,
and ran about all day long, picking up her skirts and jingling
her keys, going from the granary to the cellar and from there to
the shop, and old Tsybukin looked at her good-humouredly while
his eyes glowed, and at such moments he regretted she had not
been married to his elder son instead of to the younger one, who
was deaf, and who evidently knew very little about female beauty.
The old man had always an inclination for family life, and he
loved his family more than anything on earth, especially his
elder son, the detective, and his daughter-in-law. Aksinya had no
|
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 The Iliad by Homer: and go back to the ships taking this man along with us; for we
have achieved a mighty triumph and have slain noble Hector to
whom the Trojans prayed throughout their city as though he were a
god."
On this he treated the body of Hector with contumely: he pierced
the sinews at the back of both his feet from heel to ancle and
passed thongs of ox-hide through the slits he had made: thus he
made the body fast to his chariot, letting the head trail upon
the ground. Then when he had put the goodly armour on the chariot
and had himself mounted, he lashed his horses on and they flew
forward nothing loth. The dust rose from Hector as he was being
The Iliad |
