| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: lull in the storm, Lakamba repeated softly, as if to himself,
"Much easier. Much better."
Dain did not seem greatly discomposed by the Rajah's threatening
words. While Lakamba was speaking he had glanced once rapidly
over his shoulder, just to make sure that there was nobody behind
him, and, tranquillised in that respect, he had extracted a
siri-box out of the folds of his waist-cloth, and was wrapping
carefully the little bit of betel-nut and a small pinch of lime
in the green leaf tendered him politely by the watchful
Babalatchi. He accepted this as a peace- offering from the
silent statesman--a kind of mute protest against his master's
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: corrupted the people with gifts. When by this order they had got
leave to bribe freely, without being called to account, they set
up their own friends and dependents to stand for the praetorship,
giving money, and watching the people as they voted. Yet the
virtue and reputation of Cato was like to triumph over all these
stratagems; for the people generally felt it to be shameful that
a price should be paid for the rejection of Cato, who ought
rather to be paid himself to take upon him the office. So he
carried it by the voices of the first tribe. Hereupon Pompey
immediately framed a lie, crying out, it thundered; and straight
broke up the assembly; for the Romans religiously observed this
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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 The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: peaked beard, forming on the whole a countenance in the
expression of which the hypocrite seemed to contend with the
miser and the knave. "And it is to make room for such scarecrows
as these," thought Ravenswood, "that my ancestors have been torn
down from the walls which they erected!" he looked at them
again, and, as he looked, the recollection of Lucy Ashton, for
she had not entered the apartment with them, seemed less lively
in his imagination. There were also two or three Dutch
drolleries, as the pictures of Ostade and Teniers were then
termed, with one good painting of the Italian school. There was,
besides, a noble full-length of the Lord Keeper in his robes of
The Bride of Lammermoor |
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 Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: places the various members of the community more widely apart.
Chapter IX: Education Of Young Women In The United States
No free communities ever existed without morals; and, as I
observed in the former part of this work, morals are the work of
woman. Consequently, whatever affects the condition of women,
their habits and their opinions, has great political importance
in my eyes. Amongst almost all Protestant nations young women
are far more the mistresses of their own actions than they are in
Catholic countries. This independence is still greater in
Protestant countries, like England, which have retained or
acquired the right of self-government; the spirit of freedom is
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