| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: many, many years, and their renewal of old friendship was very
interesting to witness. Mr. Rogers told me that he first introduced
her to Lord Byron. After breakfast he had been repeating some lines
of poetry which he thought fine, when he suddenly exclaimed: "But
there is a bit of American PROSE, which, I think, had more poetry in
it than almost any modern verse." He then repeated, I should think,
more than a page from Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast," describing
the falling overboard of one of the crew, and the effect it
produced, not only at the moment, but for some time afterward. I
wondered at his memory, which enabled him to recite so beautifully a
long prose passage, so much more difficult than verse. Several of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: might as well have kicked me, and done with it. Maybe he DID kick
me, and I didn't observe it, I was so taken all aback with his brow,
somehow. It flashed like a bleached bone. What the devil's the
matter with me? I don't stand right on my legs. Coming afoul of
that old man has a sort of turned me wrong side out. By the Lord, I
must have been dreaming, though--How? how? how?--but the only way's
to stash it; so here goes to hammock again; and in the morning, I'll
see how this plaguey juggling thinks over by daylight."
CHAPTER 30
The Pipe.
When Stubb had departed, Ahab stood for a while leaning over the
Moby Dick |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: wet their beaks within both your vitals?--Look up, see, they circle in the
air above you!'"
Almost Peter Halket started and looked upward; but there was only the black
sky of Mashonaland over his head.
The stranger stood silent looking downward into the fire. Peter Halket
half clasped his arms about his knees.
"My master," he cried, "how can I take this message? The Dutchmen of South
Africa will not listen to me, they will say I am an Englishman. And the
Englishmen will say: 'Who is this fellow who comes preaching peace, peace,
peace? Has he not been a year in the country and he has not a share in a
single company? Can anything he says be worth hearing? If he were a man
|
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 When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: When I said something complimentary to him about the conduct of
the Star of the South, he replied that she was forging ahead all
right, but the question was--where to? He had been unable to take
an observation of any sort since we left Samoa; both his patent
logs had been carried away, so that now only the compass
remained, and he had not the slightest idea where we were in that
great ocean studded with atolls and islands.
I asked him whether we could not steam back to our proper
course, but he answered that to do so he would have to travel
dead in the eye of the gale, and he doubted whether the engines
would stand it. Also there was the question of coal to be
When the World Shook |
