| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: recommend is a cheap, smart coffin and a good undertaker.
See if you can find a house to give you credit for a coffin! Look
at your friend there; HE'S got some sense; he's laughing at you
so as he can't stand."
The exact degree of ill-feeling in Mr. Bostock's mind was
difficult to gauge; perhaps there was not much, perhaps he
regarded his remarks as a form of courtly badinage. But there
is little doubt that Hadden resented them. He had even risen
from his place, and the conference was on the point of breaking
up, when a new voice joined suddenly in the conversation.
The cabman sat with his back turned upon the party, smoking a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: one of the common, so-called gentlemen, who take the tricks of
their own coterie to be eternal principles of taste. He was aware,
on the other hand, that rustic people dwelling in their own places,
follow ancient rules with fastidious precision, and are easily
shocked and embarrassed by what (if they used the word) they would
have to call the vulgarity of visitors from town. And he, who was
so cavalier with men of his own class, was sedulous to shield the
more tender feelings of the peasant; he, who could be so trying in
a drawing-room, was even punctilious in the cottage. It was in all
respects a happy virtue. It renewed his life, during these
holidays, in all particulars. It often entertained him with the
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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 Virginian by Owen Wister: her horse by a backward-stretched left hand, she counted off the
distance to him continually--the increasing gain, the lessening
road, the landmarks nearing and dropping behind; here was the
tree with the wasp-nest gone; now the burned cabin was passed;
now the cottonwoods at the ford were in sight. He was silent, and
held to the saddlehorn, leaning more and more against his two
hands clasped over it; and just after they had made the crossing
he fell, without a sod slipping to the grass, and his descent
broken by her. But it started the blood a little, and she dared
not leave him to seek help. She gave him the last of the flask
and all the water he craved.
The Virginian |
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 Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: How a strength goes linked with a weakness, two by two, like the eyes.
They can wield the omare well and cast the javelin far;
Yet are they greedy and weak as the swine and the children are.
Plant we, then, here at Paea, a garden of excellent fruits;
Plant we bananas and kava and taro, the king of roots;
Let the pigs in Paea be tapu (12) and no man fish for a year;
And of all the meat in Tahiti gather we threefold here.
So shall the fame of our plenty fill the island, and so,
At last, on the tongue of rumour, go where we wish it to go.
Then shall the pigs of Taiarapu raise their snouts in the air;
But we sit quiet and wait, as the fowler sits by the snare,
Ballads |
