| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: "What do you think of them?" she asked.
"Oh, old Von Blix is all right, a solid sort of chap in his
fashion; but Tudor is fly-away--too much on the surface, you know.
If it came to being wrecked on a desert island, I'd prefer Von
Blix."
"I don't quite understand," Joan objected. "What have you against
Tudor?"
"You remember Browning's 'Last Duchess'?"
She nodded.
"Well, Tudor reminds me of her--"
"But she was delightful."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: that I doubt whether anyone saw me go. As for that poor beast, Scowl,
who stayed behind, told me that it did not die for about ten minutes,
since before its end a red rash appeared upon it similar to that which I
had seen upon Saduko's child, and it was seized with convulsions.
Well, I reached my tent unmolested, and, having lit my pipe, engaged
myself in making business entries in my note-book, in order to divert my
mind as much as I could, when suddenly I heard a most devilish clamour.
Looking up, I saw Masapo running towards me with a speed that I should
have thought impossible in so fat a man, while after him raced the
fierce-faced executioners, and behind came the mob.
"Kill the evil-doer!" they shouted.
Child of Storm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: justify himself and his seven Spanish colleagues, and to prove
Vesalius in the wrong. Public opinion, he confesses, had been very
fierce against him. The credit of Spanish medicine was at stake:
and we are not bound to believe implicitly a paper drawn up under
such circumstances for Philip's eye. This, at least, we gather:
that Don Carlos was never trepanned, as is commonly said; and this,
also, that whichever of the two stories is true, equally puts
Vesalius into direct, and most unpleasant, antagonism to the Spanish
doctors. {11}
But Don Carlos still lay senseless; and yielding to popular clamour,
the doctors called in the aid of a certain Moorish doctor, from
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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 Talisman by Walter Scott: heathenish worship he had conceived a crime dishonourable to the
land in which high miracles had been wrought, and where the day-
star of redemption had arisen.
The act of devotion, however, though rendered in such strange
society, burst purely from his natural feelings of religious
duty, and had its usual effect in composing the spirits which had
been long harassed by so rapid a succession of calamities. The
sincere and earnest approach of the Christian to the throne of
the Almighty teaches the best lesson of patience under
affliction; since wherefore should we mock the Deity with
supplications, when we insult him by murmuring under His decrees?
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