| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: startled were they by this melody wondrously breaking the twilight stillness,
that they gazed mutely at each other. Then they remembered. It was the
missionary's bell summoning the Christian Indians to the evening service.
Chapter XI.
The, sultry, drowsy, summer days passed with no untoward event to mar their
slumbering tranquillity. Life for the newcomers to the Village of Peace
brought a content, the like of which they had never dreamed of. Mr. Wells at
once began active work among the Indians, preaching to them through an
interpreter; Nell and Kate, in hours apart from household duties, busied
themselves brightening their new abode, and Jim entered upon the task of
acquainting himself with the modes and habits of the redmen. Truly, the young
The Spirit of the Border |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: their brain was fired; they stumbled towards the nearest houses on
chance; and the dart went through their liver. In place of a
Paradise the trader found an archipelago of fierce husbands and of
virtuous women. 'Of course if you wish to make love to them, it's
the same as anywhere else,' observed a trader innocently; but he
and his companions rarely so choose.
The trader must be credited with a virtue: he often makes a kind
and loyal husband. Some of the worst beachcombers in the Pacific,
some of the last of the old school, have fallen in my path, and
some of them were admirable to their native wives, and one made a
despairing widower. The position of a trader's wife in 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 Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: for that is to clamor counsels, not to inform them.
A long table and a square table, or seats about the
walls, seem things of form, but are things of sub-
stance; for at a long table a few at the upper end, in
effect, sway all the business; but in the other form,
there is more use of the counsellors' opinions, that
sit lower. A king, when he presides in counsel, let
him beware how he opens his own inclination too
much, in that which he propoundeth; for else
counsellors will but take the wind of him, and in-
stead of giving free counsel, sing him a song of
Essays of Francis Bacon |
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 Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: the gods had committed to their care. It is something to have
spoken to a prince, in such an age, without servility, and without
etiquette, of the frailties and the dangers which beset arbitrary
rulers; to have told him that royalty, "when assumed to content
oneself, is a monstrous tyranny; when assumed to fulfil its duties,
and to conduct an innumerable people as a father conducts his
children, a crushing slavery, which demands an heroic courage and
patience."
Let us honour the courtier who dared speak such truths; and still
more the saintly celibate who had sufficient catholicity of mind to
envelop them in old Grecian dress, and, without playing false for a
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