| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: "What!" he said, "do you white men refuse me this little favour, when I
have just given you so much--you who have wonderful medicines that can
cure the sick?"
"Go, Allan, go," said Retief, when he understood his words, "or he will
grow cross and everything may be undone."
So, having no choice, I went through the gateway into the labyrinth.
Next moment men pounced on me, and before I could utter a word a cloth
was thrown over my mouth and tied tight behind my head.
I was a prisoner and gagged.
CHAPTER XIX
DEPART IN PEACE
Marie |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Koran: And why did ye not say when ye heard it, 'It is not for us to
speak of this? Celebrated be His praises, this is a mighty calumny!'
God admonishes you that ye return not to the like of it ever, if
ye be believers; and God manifests to you the signs, for God is
knowing, wise.
Verily, those who love that scandal should go abroad amongst those
who believe, for them is grievous woe in this world and the next;
for God knows, but ye do not know.
And but for God's grace upon you, and His mercy, and that God is
kind and compassionate...!
O ye who believe! follow not the footsteps of Satan, for he who
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: facing the shore was bored, and they set out for the Gauls to buy
Mercenaries there at no matter what price. Nevertheless, Hamilcar was
distressed at his inability to communicate with the king of the
Numidians, for he knew that he was behind the Barbarians, and ready to
fall upon them. But Narr' Havas, being too weak, was not going to make
any venture alone; and the Suffet had the rampart raised twelve palms
higher, all the material in the arsenals piled up in the Acropolis,
and the machines repaired once more.
Sinews taken from bulls' necks, or else stags' hamstrings, were
commonly employed for the twists of the catapults. However, neither
stags nor bulls were in existence in Carthage. Hamilcar asked the
Salammbo |
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 Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: essential being as turned new aspects to the light. Such turnings
round into a new attitude the world has seen on a less extensive
scale before. The Highlanders of the seventeenth century, for
example, were cruel and bloodthirsty robbers, in the nineteenth
their descendants were conspicuously trusty and honourable men.
There was not a people in Western Europe in the early twentieth
century that seemed capable of hideous massacres, and none that
had not been guilty of them within the previous two centuries.
The free, frank, kindly, gentle life of the prosperous classes in
any European country before the years of the last wars was in a
different world of thought and feeling from that of the dingy,
The Last War: A World Set Free |
