| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: so many characteristics belong which prove them to be possessed of an
almost human intelligence. Employed in houses, they can wait at table,
sweep rooms, brush clothes, clean boots, handle a knife, fork, and spoon
properly, and even drink wine,... doing everything as well as the best
servant that ever walked upon two legs. Buffon possessed one of these apes,
who served him for a long time as a faithful and zealous servant.
The one which had been seized in the hall of Granite House was a great
fellow, six feet high, with an admirably poportioned frame, a broad chest,
head of a moderate size, the facial angle reaching sixty-five degrees,
round skull, projecting nose, skin covered with soft glossy hair, in short,
a fine specimen of the anthropoids. His eyes, rather smaller than human
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: this world or in the world below, has knowledge of them all; and it is no
wonder that she should be able to call to remembrance all that she ever
knew about virtue, and about everything; for as all nature is akin, and the
soul has learned all things; there is no difficulty in her eliciting or as
men say learning, out of a single recollection all the rest, if a man is
strenuous and does not faint; for all enquiry and all learning is but
recollection. And therefore we ought not to listen to this sophistical
argument about the impossibility of enquiry: for it will make us idle; and
is sweet only to the sluggard; but the other saying will make us active and
inquisitive. In that confiding, I will gladly enquire with you into the
nature of virtue.
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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 Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: which are unworthy of the England we have loved
together."
DIGRESSION
At this point the chronological arrangement of my book,
already weak, breaks down altogether. So far I have set
down, almost day by day, things seen and heard which
seemed to me characteristic and clear illustration of the
mentality of the Communists, of the work that has been
done or that they are trying to do, and of the general state of
affairs. I spent the whole of my time in ceaseless
investigation, talking now with this man, now with that,
|
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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: though there in the far past my true life lay, and all the rest
were nothing but a dream.
From the window of the room wherein I write I can see the peaceful
valley of the Waveney. Beyond its stream are the common lands
golden with gorse, the ruined castle, and the red roofs of Bungay
town gathered about the tower of St. Mary's Church. Yonder far
away are the king's forests of Stowe and the fields of Flixton
Abbey; to the right the steep bank is green with the Earsham oaks,
to the left the fast marsh lands spotted with cattle stretch on to
Beccles and Lowestoft, while behind me my gardens and orchards rise
in terraces up the turfy hill that in old days was known as the
Montezuma's Daughter |
