| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: Parliament. Beyond this is a market-town, though of no resort for
trade, called Market Jew. It lies, indeed, on the seaside, but has
no harbour or safe road for shipping.
At Helford is a small but good harbour between Falmouth and this
port, where many times the tin-ships go in to load for London; also
here are a good number of fishing vessels for the pilchard trade,
and abundance of skilful fishermen. It was from this town that in
the great storm which happened November 27, 1703, a ship laden with
tin was blown out to sea and driven to the Isle of Wight in seven
hours, having on board only one man and two boys. The story is as
follows:-
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: invitation to be seated, but walked to and fro in the apartment -
took a pinch of snuff, and looked at me while he was taking it with
an air of much curiosity.
'Is it even so?' said he. 'Am I so far favoured by fortune as to
have your pity? Infinitely obliged, my cousin Anne! But these
sentiments are not always reciprocal, and I warn you that the day
when I set my foot on your neck, the spine shall break. Are you
acquainted with the properties of the spine?' he asked with an
insolence beyond qualification.
It was too much. 'I am acquainted also with the properties of a
pair of pistols,' said I, toising him.
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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 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: happy. Well? Suppose I am divorced, and Alexey Alexandrovitch
lets me have Seryozha, and I marry Vronsky." Thinking of Alexey
Alexandrovitch, she at once pictured him with extraordinary
vividness as though he were alive before her, with his mild,
lifeless, dull eyes, the blue veins in his white hands, his
intonations and the cracking of his fingers, and remembering the
feeling which had existed between them, and which was also called
love, she shuddered with loathing. "Well, I'm divorced, and
become Vronsky's wife. Well, will Kitty cease looking at me as
she looked at me to-day? No. And will Seryozha leave off asking
and wondering about my two husbands? And is there any new feeling
Anna Karenina |
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: from the best sources, and his narrative bears the stamp of
truth. All that he says of the early days of Connecticut is
extremely curious. See especially the Constitution of 1639, vol.
i. ch. vi. p. 100; and also the Penal Laws of Connecticut, vol.
i. ch. vii. p. 123.
"The History of New Hampshire," by Jeremy Belknap, is a work
held in merited estimation. It was printed at Boston in 1792, in
2 vols. 8vo. The third chapter of the first volume is
particularly worthy of attention for the valuable details it
affords on the political and religious principles of the
Puritans, on the causes of their emigration, and on their laws.
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