| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: and tried for their lives. The mate got intelligence of this, and
acquainted us with it, upon which it was desired that I, who still
passed for a great man among them, should go down with the mate and
satisfy the men, and tell them that they might be assured, if they
behaved well the rest of the voyage, all they had done for the time
past should be pardoned. So I went, and after passing my honour's
word to them they appeared easy, and the more so when I caused the
two men that were in irons to be released and forgiven.
But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night; the
wind also falling calm next morning, we found that our two men who
had been laid in irons had stolen each of them a musket and some
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hamlet by William Shakespeare: do you go about to recouer the winde of mee, as if you
would driue me into a toyle?
Guild. O my Lord, if my Dutie be too bold, my loue
is too vnmannerly
Ham. I do not well vnderstand that. Will you play
vpon this Pipe?
Guild. My Lord, I cannot
Ham. I pray you
Guild. Beleeue me, I cannot
Ham. I do beseech you
Guild. I know no touch of it, my Lord
Hamlet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: ropers, and the men who know all the secrets of breaking the
wildest elephants, passed him from one to the other, and they
marked his forehead with blood from the breast of a newly killed
jungle-cock, to show that he was a forester, initiated and free of
all the jungles.
And at last, when the flames died down, and the red light of
the logs made the elephants look as though they had been dipped in
blood too, Machua Appa, the head of all the drivers of all the
Keddahs--Machua Appa, Petersen Sahib's other self, who had never
seen a made road in forty years: Machua Appa, who was so great
that he had no other name than Machua Appa,--leaped to his feet,
The Jungle Book |
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 1984 by George Orwell: lying on her side, naked from the waist upwards, with her cheek pillowed
on her hand and one dark lock tumbling across her eyes. Her breast rose
and fell slowly and regularly.
'Julia.'
No answer.
'Julia, are you awake?'
No answer. She was asleep. He shut the book, put it carefully on the floor,
lay down, and pulled the coverlet over both of them.
He had still, he reflected, not learned the ultimate secret. He understood
HOW; he did not understand WHY. Chapter I, like Chapter III, had not
actually told him anything that he did not know, it had merely systematized
1984 |
