| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rivers to the Sea by Sara Teasdale: A PRAYER
UNTIL I lose my soul and lie
Blind to the beauty of the earth,
Deaf tho' a lyric wind goes by,
Dumb in a storm of mirth;
Until my heart is quenched at length
And I have left the land of men,
Oh let me love with all my strength
Careless if I am loved again.
II
INDIAN SUMMER
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: at such a time he stood committed to a piece of purely sentimental
quixotry. The quittances which the Mayor of Meudon had exacted from
him before he would issue the necessary safe-conducts placed the
whole of his future, perhaps his very life, in jeopardy. And he
had consented to do this not for the sake of a reality, but out of
regard for an idea - he who all his life had avoided the false lure
of worthless and hollow sentimentality.
Thus thought Andre-Louis as he considered her now so searchingly,
finding it, naturally enough, a matter of extraordinary interest to
look consciously upon his mother for the first time at the age of
eight-and-twenty.
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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 Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: it said--that Saduko refused to be the executioner of his father-in-law,
Umbezi; so those with him performed this office and brought him back a
prisoner to Cetewayo.
When the Prince learned that his direct order, spoken in the accustomed
and fearful formula of _"Take him away,"_ had been disobeyed, his rage
was, or seemed to be, great. My own conviction is that he was only
seeking a cause of quarrel against Saduko, who, he thought, was a very
powerful man, who would probably treat him, should opportunity arise, as
he had treated Umbelazi, and perhaps now that the most of Panda's sons
were dead, except himself and the lads M'tonga, Sikota and M'kungo, who
had fled into Natal, might even in future days aspire to the throne as
Child of Storm |
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 Critias by Plato: over the inscription, and vowing not to transgress the laws of their father
Poseidon. When night came, they put on azure robes and gave judgment
against offenders. The most important of their laws related to their
dealings with one another. They were not to take up arms against one
another, and were to come to the rescue if any of their brethren were
attacked. They were to deliberate in common about war, and the king was
not to have the power of life and death over his kinsmen, unless he had the
assent of the majority.
For many generations, as tradition tells, the people of Atlantis were
obedient to the laws and to the gods, and practised gentleness and wisdom
in their intercourse with one another. They knew that they could only have
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