| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: HOMESICK
It's tough when you are homesick in a strange
and distant place;
It's anguish when you're hungry for an old-
familiar face.
And yearning for the good folks and the joys
you used to know,
When you're miles away from friendship, is a
bitter sort of woe.
But it's tougher, let me tell you, and a stiffer
discipline
A Heap O' Livin' |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: pliability itself in the concerns of his friends. Whilst for ever
occupied in laying these on a secure foundation, he made it a
ceaseless task to baffle the projects of the national foe.
The epithets applied to him are significant. His relatives found in
him a kinsman who was more than kind. To his intimates he appeared as
a friend in need who is a friend indeed. To the man who had done him
some service, of tenacious memory. To the victim of injustice, a
knight-errant. And to those who had incurred danger by his side, a
saviour second only to the gods.
It was given to this man, as it appears to me, to prove exceptionally
that though strength of body may wax old the vigour of a man's soul is
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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 An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: dated back for eight centuries, and to discover that at one time a
monastery had existed in the heart of the forest. When the first
rumblings of the thunder of the Revolution were heard, the Marquis de
Simeuse, who had been forced to look into his title by a lawsuit and
so learned the above facts as it were by chance, began, with a secret
intention not difficult to conceive, to search for some remains of the
former monastery. The keeper, Michu, to whom the forest was well
known, helped his master in the search, and it was his sagacity as a
forester which led to the discovery of the site. Observing the trend
of the five chief roads of the forest, some of which were now effaced,
he saw that they all ended either at the little eminence or by the
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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 Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: How soon did he say he'd be up?"
"Inside a week. It's a clean fracture. Of course, he'll be
strapped up for some time. Fancy his going on, though."
"Must have been temporarily deranged," said my brother-in-law
airily. "Shock of the fall, I expect."
"Rubbish!" said his wife. Just because you'd have lain there,
giving directions about your funeral and saying you forgave
people, you think anybody's mad for trying to get on. Boy has
courage."
"Only that of his convictions," said Berry. "You forget I've got
a clean sheet. My discharge from the Navy was marked 'Amazing'.
The Brother of Daphne |
