| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith: This letter--but stay! you can read it--look here!"
XXI.
It was now Alfred's turn to feel roused and enraged.
But Lucile to himself was not pledged or engaged
By aught that could sanction resentment. He said
Not a word, but turn'd round, took the letter, and read . . .
THE COMTESSE DE NEVERS TO THE DUC DE LUVOIS.
"SAINT SAVIOUR.
"Your letter, which follow'd me here, makes me stay
Till I see you again. With no moment's delay
I entreat, I conjure you, by all that you feel
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: are you indignant about? Do I want you to rob the widow and
orphan? Why, man! Lloyd's a corporation, it hasn't got a body to
starve. There's forty or more of them perhaps who underwrote the
lines on that silly ship of yours. Not one human being would go
hungry or cold for it. They take every risk into consideration.
Everything I tell you. . . That sort of talk. H'm! George too
upset to speak - only gurgles and waves his arms; so sudden, you
see. The other, warming his back at the fire, goes on. Wood-pulp
business next door to a failure. Tinned-fruit trade nearly played
out. . . You're frightened, he says; but the law is only meant to
frighten fools away. . . And he shows how safe casting away that
Within the Tides |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: it seemed as though she were standing quite alone. She looked up: on one
side of her was the high precipice, on the other was the river, with the
willow trees, drooping their branches into the water; and the moonlight was
over all. Up, against the night sky the pointed leaves of the kippersol
trees were clearly marked, and the rocks and the willow trees cast dark
shadows.
In her sleep she shivered, and half awoke.
"Ah, I am not there, I am here," she said; and she crept closer to the
rock, and kissed it, and went to sleep again.
It must have been about three o'clock, for the moon had begun to sink
towards the western sky, when she woke, with a violent start. She sat up,
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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 Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: miles. [See U. S. census report of 1890.]]
Since the first settlement of the British colonies, the
number of inhabitants has about doubled every twenty-two years.
I perceive no causes which are likely to check this progressive
increase of the Anglo-American population for the next hundred
years; and before that space of time has elapsed, I believe that
the territories and dependencies of the United States will be
covered by more than 100,000,000 of inhabitants, and divided into
forty States. *i I admit that these 100,000,000 of men have no ho
hostile interests. I suppose, on the contrary, that they are all
equally interested in the maintenance of the Union; but I am
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