| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: Like to a new-kill'd bird she trembling lies;
She dares not look; yet, winking, there appears
Quick-shifting antics, ugly in her eyes:
Such shadows are the weak brain's forgeries:
Who, angry that the eyes fly from their lights,
In darkness daunts them with more dreadful sights.
His hand, that yet remains upon her breast,
(Rude ram, to batter such an ivory wall!)
May feel her heart, poor citizen, distress'd,
Wounding itself to death, rise up and fall,
Beating her bulk, that his hand shakes withal.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: pouted, his glance sullen. Mr. Wilding, on the contrary, smiled across
the table.
"For my part I very gladly give Your Grace the undertaking," said he,
and took care not to observe the sneer that altered the line of Lord
Grey's lips. His lordship, too, was forced to give the same pledge,
and he followed it up by inveighing sturdily against the suggestion that
they should retreat.
"I do protest," he exclaimed, "that those who advise Your Grace to do
anything but go forward boldly now, are evil counsellors. If you put
back to Holland, you may leave every hope behind. There will be no
second coming for you. Your influence will have been dissipated. Men
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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 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: provided myself with four paddles. I laid in a stock of boiled
flesh, of rabbits and fowls, and took with me two vessels, one
filled with milk and the other with water.
I tried my canoe in a large pond, near my master's house, and
then corrected in it what was amiss; stopping all the chinks with
YAHOOS' tallow, till I found it staunch, and able to bear me and
my freight; and, when it was as complete as I could possibly make
it, I had it drawn on a carriage very gently by YAHOOS to the
sea-side, under the conduct of the sorrel nag and another
servant.
When all was ready, and the day came for my departure, I took
Gulliver's Travels |
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 Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: only with those forces which tended to bring the civilised world
under the dominion of Rome (ix. 1), and in the Thucydidean spirit
points out the want of picturesqueness and romance in his pages
which is the result of the abstract method ([Greek text which
cannot be reproduced]) being careful also to tell us that his
rejection of all other forces is essentially deliberate and the
result of a preconceived theory and by no means due to carelessness
of any kind.
Now, of the general value of the abstract method and the legality
of its employment in the sphere of history, this is perhaps not the
suitable occasion for any discussion. It is, however, in all ways
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