| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cromwell by William Shakespeare: FRISKIBALL.
I promise you, I have not seen the man
This two months day; his poverty is such,
As I do think he shames to see his friends.
BAGOT.
Why, then, assure your self to see him straight,
For at your suit I have arrested him,
And here they will be with him presently.
FRISKIBALL.
Arrest him at my suit? you were to blame.
I know the man's misfortune to be such,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: I swam more vigorously; but, cramped by my clothes, which stuck
to me like a leaden weight, I felt great difficulty in bearing up.
Conseil saw this.
"Will master let me make a slit?" said he; and, slipping an open knife
under my clothes, he ripped them up from top to bottom very rapidly.
Then he cleverly slipped them off me, while I swam for both of us.
Then I did the same for Conseil, and we continued to swim near
to each other.
Nevertheless, our situation was no less terrible.
Perhaps our disappearance had not been noticed; and, if it
had been, the frigate could not tack, being without its helm.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: snow, glossy like fur, bright like daylight, a joy to wallowing dogs
and cheerful to the souls of men. Or perhaps from across storied and
malarious Italy, a wind cunningly winds about the mountains and
breaks, warm and unclean, upon our mountain valley. Every nerve is
set ajar; the conscience recognises, at a gust, a load of sins and
negligences hitherto unknown; and the whole invalid world huddles
into its private chambers, and silently recognises the empire of the
Fohn.
CHAPTER XI - ALPINE DIVERSIONS
THERE will be no lack of diversion in an Alpine sanitarium. The
place is half English, to be sure, the local sheet appearing in
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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 Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: will realise about anything is that it is inanimate. They had
transferred their animation to mankind. They still believed
there was intelligence somewhere, even if it was careless or
malignant.... It had only to be aroused to be
conscience-stricken, to be moved to exertion.... And I saw, too,
that as yet THERE WAS NO SUCH INTELLIGENCE. The world waits for
intelligence. That intelligence has still to be made, that will
for good and order has still to be gathered together, out of
scraps of impulse and wandering seeds of benevolence and whatever
is fine and creative in our souls, into a common purpose. It's
something still to come....'
The Last War: A World Set Free |
