| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: Antonio Galvano's "Discoveries of the World," a mine of winter
evening amusement to Amyas; and the other, a manuscript book,
which, perhaps, it had been well for Amyas had he never seen. For
it was none other than a sort of rough journal which Don Guzman had
kept as a lad, when he went down with the Adelantado Gonzales
Ximenes de Casada, from Peru to the River of Amazons, to look for
the golden country of El Dorado, and the city of Manoa, which
stands in the midst of the White Lake, and equals or surpasses in
glory even the palace of the Inca Huaynacapac; "all the vessels of
whose house and kitchen are of gold and silver, and in his wardrobe
statues of gold which seemed giants, and figures in proportion and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: admitted since (for the story has been a legitimate
subject of conversation about here for years) that
he made more than one step backwards. Then a
sudden burst of rapid, senseless speech persuaded
him at once that he had to do with an escaped luna-
tic. In fact, that impression never wore off com-
pletely. Smith has not in his heart given up his
secret conviction of the man's essential insanity to
this very day.
"As the creature approached him, jabbering in
a most discomposing manner, Smith (unaware that
Amy Foster |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: By his loued Mansonry, that the Heauens breath
Smells wooingly here: no Iutty frieze,
Buttrice, nor Coigne of Vantage, but this Bird
Hath made his pendant Bed, and procreant Cradle,
Where they must breed, and haunt: I haue obseru'd
The ayre is delicate.
Enter Lady.
King. See, see our honor'd Hostesse:
The Loue that followes vs, sometime is our trouble,
Which still we thanke as Loue. Herein I teach you,
How you shall bid God-eyld vs for your paines,
Macbeth |
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: We can only infer that in this, and perhaps in some other cases, Plato's
characters have no reference to the actual facts. The desire to do honour
to his own family, and the connection with Solon, may have suggested the
introduction of his name. Why the Critias was never completed, whether
from accident, or from advancing age, or from a sense of the artistic
difficulty of the design, cannot be determined.
CRITIAS.
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Critias, Hermocrates, Timaeus, Socrates.
TIMAEUS: How thankful I am, Socrates, that I have arrived at last, and,
like a weary traveller after a long journey, may be at rest! And I pray
the being who always was of old, and has now been by me revealed, to grant
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