| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: feeding singly, in groups, in herds, game of all sizes and
descriptions. The rounded ears of jackals pointed at us from the
grass. Hundreds of birds balanced or fluttered about us, birds of
all sizes from the big ground hornbill to the littlest hummers
and sun birds. Overhead, across the wonderful variegated sky of
Africa the broad-winged carrion hunters and birds of prey
wheeled. In all our stay on the Isiola we had not seen a single
rhino track, so we rode quite care free and happy.
Finally, across a glade, not over a hundred and fifty yards away,
we saw a solitary bull oryx standing under a bush. B. wanted an
oryx. We discussed this one idly. He looked to be a decent oryx,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: Speakers were announced from the Communists,
Internationalists, Mensheviks, and Right
Social Revolutionaries. The last-named did not arrive.
The Presidium was for the most part non-Communist,
and the meeting was about equally divided for and
against the Communists. A Communist led
off with a very bad speech on the general European
situation and to the effect that there was no salvation for
Russia except by the way she was going. Lozovsky, the
old Internationalist, spoke next, supporting the Bolsheviks'
general policy but criticizing their suppression of the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: guardians of a flock, they will marshal their battalions, as it were,
some to drive off the guard and others to effect the capture, and so
by stealth or fair fight they provide themselves with the necessaries
of life. I say, if dumb beasts are capable of conducting a raid with
so much sense and skill, it is hard if any average man cannot prove
himself equally intelligent with creatures which themselves fall
victims to the craft of man.
[19] e.g. defiles, bridges, outposts, stores, etc.
[20] e.g. a line of outposts, troops in billets or bivouac, etc.
[21] "It is a maxim, the quarry should be weaker than the pursuer."
[22] Zeune cf. Ael. "N. A." viii. 14, on the skill of wolves in
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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 The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: suddenly, of apoplectic seizure, at the beginning of 1892, a
leaf of manuscript paper was found, covered with pencil
jottings. These notes were in Latin, much abbreviated, and had
evidently been made in great haste. The MS. was only
deciphered with difficulty, and some words have up to the
present time evaded all the efforts of the expert employed.
The date, "XXV Jul. 1888," is written on the right-hand
corner of the MS. The following is a translation of Dr.
Matheson's manuscript.]
"Whether science would benefit by these brief notes if
they could be published, I do not know, but rather doubt. But
The Great God Pan |
