| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: body, his arms and his knicker-bockered legs tucked up tightly - against
the weird spaciousness of the lunar scene. A gust of laughter seized me,
and then I stepped off to follow. Plump! I dropped beside him.
We made a few gargantuan strides, leapt three or four times more, and sat
down at last in a lichenous hollow. Our lungs were painful. We sat holding
our sides and recovering our breath, looking appreciation to one another.
Cavor panted something about "amazing sensations." And then came a thought
into my head. For the moment it did not seem a particularly appalling
thought, simply a natural question arising out of the situation.
"By the way," I said, "where exactly is the sphere?"
Cavor looked at me. "Eh?"
The First Men In The Moon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: And on it goes confounding all the sense
Of body and mind. For of the primal germs
Are loosed their old arrangements, and, throughout,
The vital motions blocked,- until the stuff,
Shaken profoundly through the frame entire,
Undoes the vital knots of soul from body
And throws that soul, to outward wide-dispersed,
Through all the pores. For what may we surmise
A blow inflicted can achieve besides
Shaking asunder and loosening all apart?
It happens also, when less sharp the blow,
Of The Nature of Things |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: message was brought him concerning the battle at Corinth,[8] in which
but eight Lacedaemonians had fallen, but of their opponents ten
thousand nearly, showed no sign of exultation, but sighed, saying,
"Alas for Hellas! since those who now lie in their graves, were able,
had they lived, to conquer the hosts of Asia."[9] Again, when some
Corinthian exiles informed him that their city was ripe for surrender,
and showed him the engines by which they were confident they would
take the walls, he refused to make the assault, saying that Hellene
cities ought not to be reduced to slavery, but brought back to a
better mind,[10] and added, "For if we lop off our offending members,
haply we may deprive ourselves of the means to master the barbarians."
|
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 Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: I sighed.
"Disappointed?" she said.
"Not in you- you're beautiful. But in myself. Yes, I shall
resign."
"Resign?"
"My scout-hood."
"You were wrong about my hair, but- "
"But what?"
"You knew me again, at any rate."
"But of course. You've the same voice and the same dear laugh,
and- yes, you've got- "
The Brother of Daphne |
