| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: dynasties -- all save the landscape it adorns and human nature
-- till the appointed day when the wind wins the long battle
and rejoices over a reclaimed space, or decay puts the last stroke
to his fungus-fingered work.
Ah, one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!
In the evenings it was customary for Sir Henry, Good, and myself
to dine, or rather sup, with their Majesties -- not every night,
indeed, but about three or four times a week, whenever they had
not much company, or the affairs of state would allow of it.
And I am bound to say that those little suppers were quite the
most charming things of their sort that I ever had to do with.
Allan Quatermain |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: sailor-boy, and Jimmie the Tongan half-caste, set off in the
boat across that rapidly shoaling bay of the lagoon.
How long the next scene lasted, I could never tell. Sale was
always trying to steal away with our canoe and leave the
other four, probably for six hours, in an empty, leaky boat,
without so much as an orange or a cocoanut on board, and
under the direct rays of the sun. I had at last to stop him
by taking the spare paddle off the out-rigger and sticking it
in the ground - depth, perhaps two feet - width of the bay,
say three miles. At last I bid him land me and my mother and
go back for the other ladies. 'The coast is so rugged,' said
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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 1984 by George Orwell: not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling
group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make
or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society
intact. The very word 'war', therefore, has become misleading. It would
probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to
exist. The peculiar pressure that it exerted on human beings between the
Neolithic Age and the early twentieth century has disappeared and been
replaced by something quite different. The effect would be much the same
if the three super-states, instead of fighting one another, should agree
to live in perpetual peace, each inviolate within its own boundaries. For
in that case each would still be a self-contained universe, freed for ever
1984 |
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 Love Songs by Sara Teasdale: To give you in your hand! And see, and see,
There is a star, deep in the lake, a star!
Oh, dimmer than a pearl -- if you stoop down
Your hand could almost reach it up to me. . . .
There was a new frail yellow moon to-night --
I wish you could have had it for a cup
With stars like dew to fill it to the brim. . . .
How cold it is! Even the lights are cold;
They have put shawls of fog around them, see!
What if the air should grow so dimly white
That we would lose our way along the paths
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