| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: tongue of flame; and a sudden dreadful gloom fell all round the
stunned d'Alcacer, who beheld with terror the morning sun, robbed
of its rays, glow dull and brown through the sombre murk which
had taken possession of the universe. The Emma had blown up; and
when the rain of shattered timbers and mangled corpses falling
into the lagoon had ceased, the cloud of smoke hanging motionless
under the livid sun cast its shadow afar on the Shore of Refuge
where all strife had come to an end.
A great wail of terror ascended from the Settlement and was
succeeded by a profound silence. People could be seen bolting in
unreasoning panic away from the houses and into the fields. On
The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: "God has made us all frail beings," he said firmly. "If you love the
heiress of that crime, marry her; but content yourself with the
property she derives from her mother; give that of the father to the
poor."
"But," cried one of those pitiless hair-splitters who are often to be
met with in the world, "perhaps the father could make a rich marriage
only because he was rich himself; consequently, the marriage was the
fruit of the crime."
"This discussion is, in itself, a verdict. There are some things on
which a man does not deliberate," said my former guardian, who thought
to enlighten the assembly with a flash of inebriety.
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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 Timaeus by Plato: compound figures which are formed out of either, the plane equilateral
quadrangle has necessarily a more stable basis than the equilateral
triangle, both in the whole and in the parts. Wherefore, in assigning this
figure to earth, we adhere to probability; and to water we assign that one
of the remaining forms which is the least moveable; and the most moveable
of them to fire; and to air that which is intermediate. Also we assign the
smallest body to fire, and the greatest to water, and the intermediate in
size to air; and, again, the acutest body to fire, and the next in
acuteness to, air, and the third to water. Of all these elements, that
which has the fewest bases must necessarily be the most moveable, for it
must be the acutest and most penetrating in every way, and also 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 Vailima Prayers & Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson: and the recitation in concert of the Lord's Prayer, also in Samoan.
Many of these hymns were set to ancient tunes, very wild and
warlike, and strangely at variance with the missionary words.
Sometimes a passing band of hostile warriors, with blackened faces,
would peer in at us through the open windows, and often we were
forced to pause until the strangely savage, monotonous noise of the
native drums had ceased; but no Samoan, nor, I trust, white person,
changed his reverent attitude. Once, I remember a look of
surprised dismay crossing the countenance of Tusitala when my son,
contrary to his usual custom of reading the next chapter following
that of yesterday, turned back the leaves of his Bible to find a
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