| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: only say perhaps--that chalk may be going to make layers of rich
marl in the sea between England and France; and those marl-beds
may be upheaved and grow into dry land, and be ploughed, and
sowed, and reaped by a wiser race of men, in a better-ordered
world than this: or the chalk may have even a nobler destiny
before it. That may happen to it, which has happened already to
many a grain of lime. It may be carried thousands of miles away
to help in building up a coral reef (what that is I must tell you
afterwards). That coral reef may harden into limestone beds.
Those beds may be covered up, pressed, and, it may be, heated,
till they crystallise into white marble: and out of it fairer
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: spoke piteously, saying, 'Sir, do not force me to go with you,
but let me stay here, for I know you will not bring one of them
back with you, nor even return alive yourself; let us rather see
if we cannot escape at any rate with the few that are left us,
for we may still save our lives.'
"'Stay where you are, then,' answered I, 'eating and drinking at
the ship, but I must go, for I am most urgently bound to do so.'
"With this I left the ship and went up inland. When I got
through the charmed grove, and was near the great house of the
enchantress Circe, I met Mercury with his golden wand, disguised
as a young man in the hey-day of his youth and beauty with the
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: eldest son of William Earl of Airth and Menteith, and the
singular circumstances attending the birth and history of James
Stewart of Ardvoirlich, by whose hand the unfortunate nobleman
fell.
Our subject leads us to talk of deadly feuds, and we must begin
with one still more ancient than that to which our story relates.
During the reign of James IV., a great feud between the powerful
families of Drummond and Murray divided Perthshire. The former,
being the most numerous and powerful, cooped up eight score of
the Murrays in the kirk of Monivaird, and set fire to it. The
wives and the children of the ill-fated men, who had also found
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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 Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: where a man hath strength of favor: but other-
wise, a man were better rise in his suit; for
he, that would have ventured at first to have lost
the suitor, will not in the conclusion lose both the
suitor, and his own former favor. Nothing is
thought so easy a request to a great person, as his
letter; and yet, if it be not in a good cause, it is so
much out of his reputation. There are no worse
instruments, than these general contrivers of suits;
for they are but a kind of poison, and infection, to
public proceedings.
Essays of Francis Bacon |
