| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: old Damien, whose weaknesses and worse perhaps I heard fully, I
think only the more. It was a European peasant: dirty, bigoted,
untruthful, unwise, tricky, but superb with generosity, residual
candour and fundamental good-humour: convince him he had done
wrong (it might take hours of insult) and he would undo what he had
done and like his corrector better. A man, with all the grime and
paltriness of mankind, but a saint and hero all the more for that.
The place as regards scenery is grand, gloomy, and bleak. Mighty
mountain walls descending sheer along the whole face of the island
into a sea unusually deep; the front of the mountain ivied and
furred with clinging forest, one viridescent cliff: about half-way
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: custom: and they said me, that of old time men had been dead for
deflowering of maidens, that had serpents in their bodies that
stung men upon their yards, that they died anon: and therefore
they held that customs to make other men ordained therefore to lie
by their wives, for dread of death, and to assay the passage by
another [rather] than for to put them in that adventure.
After that is another isle where that women make great sorrow when
their children be y-born. And when they die, they make great feast
and great joy and revel, and then they cast them into a great fire
burning. And those that love well their husbands, if their
husbands be dead, they cast them also in the fire with their
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: Book XVI
ULYSSES REVEALS HIMSELF TO TELEMACHUS.
Meanwhile Ulysses and the swineherd had lit a fire in the hut
and were were getting breakfast ready at daybreak, for they had
sent the men out with the pigs. When Telemachus came up, the
dogs did not bark but fawned upon him, so Ulysses, hearing the
sound of feet and noticing that the dogs did not bark, said to
Eumaeus:
"Eumaeus, I hear footsteps; I suppose one of your men or some
one of your acquaintance is coming here, for the dogs are
fawning upon him and not barking."
The Odyssey |
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 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Doth grace for grace, and Loue for Loue allow:
The other did not so
Fri. O she knew well,
Thy Loue did read by rote, that could not spell:
But come young wauerer, come goe with me,
In one respect, Ile thy assistant be:
For this alliance may so happy proue,
To turne your houshould rancor to pure Loue
Rom. O let vs hence, I stand on sudden hast
Fri. Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast.
Exeunt.
Romeo and Juliet |
