| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: lamenting their losses with violent excesses of grief; then giving
thanks for their lives, and that they should be brought on shore,
as it were, on purpose to be saved from death; then again in tears
for such as were drowned. The various cases were indeed very
affecting, and, in many things, very instructing.
As I say, Plymouth lies in the bottom of this Sound, in the centre
between the two waters, so there lies against it, in the same
position, an island, which they call St. Nicholas, on which there
is a castle which commands the entrance into Hamoaze, and indeed
that also into Catwater in some degree. In this island the famous
General Lambert, one of Cromwell's great agents or officers in the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: He was monarch of all he surveyed. It was very thrilling to
stand here, on this forbidden ground, smelling the saw- dust,
gazing at the big red wagons, studying the unprotected circus
properties, and listening to the lightening tempo of the band.
"Did you see him?" shouted Strong, who had followed closely upon
Elverson's heels.
The little deacon started. Strong was certainly a disturbing
factor at times.
"Yes, I--I saw him."
"Well?"
"He--he--didn't see HER."
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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 The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: after Corvick's death - the drop of her desire to see him face to
face. She had got what she wanted without that. I had been sure
that if she hadn't got it she wouldn't have been restrained from
the endeavour to sound him personally by those superior reflexions,
more conceivable on a man's part than on a woman's, which in my
case had served an a deterrent. It wasn't however, I hasten to
add, that my case, in spite of this invidious comparison, wasn't
ambiguous enough. At the thought that Vereker was perhaps at that
moment dying there rolled over me a wave of anguish - a poignant
sense of how inconsistently I still depended on him. A delicacy
that it was my one compensation to suffer to rule me had left 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 The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: "Al, you sure are a free-hearted, trustin' feller. I'm some
doubtin' the cigarette idee; but you can gamble if it was a
cigarette it belonged to a cunnin' vaquero, an' wasn't dropped
accident-like."
"Now, Bill, you don't mean Don Carlos burned the rancho?"
ejaculatcd Alfred, in mingled amaze and anger.
Again the old cattleman laughed.
"Powerful strange to say, my friend, ole Bill means jest thet."
"Of course Don Carlos set that fire," put in Florence, with
spirit. "Al, if you live out heah a hundred years you'll never
learn that Greasers are treacherous. I know Gene Stewart
The Light of Western Stars |
