| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: easily to be received), and to contain the principal
bulk of the vulgar natives, within those three
kinds, - tillers of the ground; free servants; and
handicraftsmen of strong and manly arts, as
smiths, masons, carpenters, etc.; not reckoning
professed soldiers.
But above all, for empire and greatness, it im-
porteth most, that a nation do profess arms, as their
principal honor, study, and occupation. For the
things which we formerly have spoken of, are but
habilitations towards arms; and what is habilita-
Essays of Francis Bacon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: ease. With such a destination, what mattered a little buffeting of
wind or a sprinkle of cold water? I recalled Flora's image, I took
her in fancy to my arms, and my heart throbbed. And the next
moment I had recognised the inanity of that fool's paradise. If I
could spy her taper as she went to bed, I might count myself lucky.
I had about two leagues before me of a road mostly uphill, and now
deep in mire. So soon as I was clear of the last street lamp,
darkness received me - a darkness only pointed by the lights of
occasional rustic farms, where the dogs howled with uplifted heads
as I went by. The wind continued to decline: it had been but a
squall, not a tempest. The rain, on the other hand, settled into a
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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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: the point of the thing lay in a sort of humorous
inappropriateness; and it is natural enough that pleasantry
of this description should become less common, as men learn
to suspect some serious analogy underneath. Thus a comical
story of an ape touches us quite differently after the
proposition of Mr. Darwin's theory. Moreover, there lay,
perhaps, at the bottom of this primitive sort of fable, a
humanity, a tenderness of rough truths; so that at the end of
some story, in which vice or folly had met with its destined
punishment, the fabulist might be able to assure his
auditors, as we have often to assure tearful children on the
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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 Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Here is our pleasant meeting come to pass," said the aged crone,
"according as thou hast desired. Say quickly what thou wouldst
have of me, for there is but a short hour that we may tarry
here."
As the old withered woman spoke, a smile glimmered on her
countenance, like lamplight on the wall of a sepulchre. The lady
trembled, and cast her eyes upward to the verge of the basin, as
if meditating to return with her purpose unaccomplished. But it
was not so ordained.
"I am a stranger in this land, as you know," said she at length.
"Whence I come it matters not; but I have left those behind me
Twice Told Tales |
