| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: I acknowledge I was one of those thoughtless ones that had made so
little provision that my servants were obliged to go out of doors to buy
every trifle by penny and halfpenny, just as before it began, even till
my experience showing me the folly, I began to be wiser so late that I
had scarce time to store myself sufficient for our common subsistence
for a month.
I had in family only an ancient woman that managed the house, a
maid-servant, two apprentices, and myself; and the plague beginning
to increase about us, I had many sad thoughts about what course I
should take, and how I should act. The many dismal objects which
happened everywhere as I went about the streets, had filled my mind
A Journal of the Plague Year |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: Islands, like Tahiti, the Queen of Isles, with its ring of coral-
reef all round its shore, began sinking slowly under the sea. The
land, as it sunk, would be gone for good and all: but the coral-
reef round it would not, because the coral polypes would build up
and up continually upon the skeletons of their dead parents, to
get to the surface of the water, and would keep close to the top
outside, however much the land sunk inside; and when the island
had sunk completely beneath the sea, what would be left? What
must be left but a ring of coral reef, around the spot where the
last mountain peak of the island sank beneath the sea?" And so
Mr. Darwin explained the shapes of hundreds of coral islands in
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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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: first, just for a second, she felt very glad; and then, just for a
second, she felt very sorry; and she never knew or could remember
why. She forgot after awhile how she had been so full of sorrow
when Sister Justina said, Be Ashamed, and she could no longer
remember why she was glad; only a feeling of both was left--and she
could not tell how or why.
But the lady would not let Bessie Bell get far from her, and Bessie
did not care to go far from her. She stood with her little pink
hands folded, and looked up at the lady who held to her so closely.
Sister Helen Vincula said: ``It was Sister Theckla who spent that
summer with the sick, and it was Sister Theckla who brought the
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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 Dreams by Olive Schreiner: had gathered, and the scent was very sweet in the lonely desert.
But he followed her. Once more he stood before her with his still, white,
death-like face. And she knew what he had come for: she unbent the
fingers, and let the flowers drop out, the flowers she had loved so, and
walked on without them, with dry, aching eyes. Then for the last time he
came. And she showed him her empty hands, the hands that held nothing now.
But still he looked. Then at length she opened her bosom and took out of
it one small flower she had hidden there, and laid it on the sand. She had
nothing more to give now, and she wandered away, and the grey sand whirled
about her.
IV. IN A FAR-OFF WORLD.
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