| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: intervening in my behalf[14] to suffer me to close my life in the
ripeness of age, and by the gentlest of deaths. For if at this time
sentence of death be passed upon me, it is plain I shall be allowed to
meet an end which, in the opinion of those who have studied the
matter, is not only the easiest in itself, but one which will cause
the least trouble to one's friends,[15] while engendering the deepest
longing for the departed. For of necessity he will only be thought of
with regret and longing who leaves nothing behind unseemly or
discomfortable to haunt the imagination of those beside him, but,
sound of body, and his soul still capable of friendly repose, fades
tranquilly away."
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: washed into the deep water.
The deceased had passed along this rope-ladder many
hundred times, both by day and night, and the operations in
which he was employed being nearly finished, he was about to
leave the rock when this melancholy catastrophe took place.
The unfortunate loss of Henderson cast a deep gloom upon the
minds of all who were at the rock, and it required some
management on the part of those who had charge to induce the
people to remain patiently at their work; as the weather now
became more boisterous, and the nights long, they found their
habitation extremely cheerless, while the winds were howling
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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 An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: save. That quieted my conscience until I began to wonder why one
man should make another pay him for exercising one of the
virtues. Then came the question: what did my father abstain from?
The workmen abstained from meat, drink, fresh air, good clothes,
decent lodging, holidays, money, the society of their families,
and pretty nearly everything that makes life worth living, which
was perhaps the reason why they usually died twenty years or so
sooner than people in our circumstances. Yet no one rewarded them
for their abstinence. The reward came to my father, who abstained
from none of these things, but indulged in them all to his
heart's content. Besides, if the money was the reward of
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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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: beyond the red horizon of the moor and the rainy hill-top,
the shepherd and his sheep, a fowling-piece, a spade, a pipe,
a dunghill, a crowing cock, the shining and the withdrawal of
the sun. An occasional pathos of simple humanity, and
frequent patches of big Biblical words, relieved the homely
tissue. It was a poetry apart; bleak, austere, but genuine,
and redolent of the soil.
A little before the coming of the squall there was a
different scene enacting at the outposts. For the most part,
the sentinels were faithful to their important duty; the
Hill-end of Drumlowe was known to be a safe meeting-place;
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