| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: citerioris Hispaniae finitimae Aquitaniae: inde auxilia ducesque
arcessuntur. Quorum adventu magna cum auctoritate et magna [cum] hominum
multitudine bellum gerere conantur. Duces vero ii deliguntur qui una cum
Q. Sertorio omnes annos fuerant summamque scientiam rei militaris habere
existimabantur. Hi consuetudine populi Romani loca capere, castra munire,
commeatibus nostros intercludere instituunt. Quod ubi Crassus
animadvertit, suas copias propter exiguitatem non facile diduci, hostem et
vagari et vias obsidere et castris satis praesidii relinquere, ob eam
causam minus commode frumentum commeatumque sibi supportari, in dies
hostium numcrum augeri, non cunctandum existimavit quin pugna decertaret.
Hac re ad consilium delata, ubi omnes idem sentire intellexit, posterum
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: in tone, and determined not to bate an inch of his rights. The
Marguerites should appear when it suited his purpose; he should wait
until Lucien was in a position to secure the success of the book; it
was his, he had bought it outright. When Lucien asserted that Dauriat
was bound to publish the Marguerites by the very nature of the
contract, and the relative positions of the parties to the agreement,
Dauriat flatly contradicted him, said that no publisher could be
compelled by law to publish at a loss, and that he himself was the
best judge of the expediency of producing the book. There was,
besides, a remedy open to Lucien, as any court of law would admit--the
poet was quite welcome to take his verses to a Royalist publisher upon
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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 A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: Drummond and their respective followers, joined Montrose, as
recorded by Wishart, at Buchanty. While they served together, so
strong was their intimacy, that they lived and slept in the same
tent.
"In the meantime, Montrose had been joined by the Irish under the
command of Alexander Macdonald; these, on their march to join
Montrose, had committed some excesses on lands belonging to
Ardvoirlich, which lay in the line of their march from the west
coast. Of this Ardvoirlich complained to Montrose, who, probably
wishing as much as possible to conciliate his new allies, treated
it in rather an evasive manner. Ardvoirlich, who was a man of
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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 End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: on the sky, tall and slim, and with their disheveled heads
in a bunch, as if in confidential criticism of the dark
mangroves. The Sofala would be headed towards the
somber strip of the coast, which at a given moment, as
the ship closed with it obliquely, would show several
clean shining fractures--the brimful estuary of a river.
Then on through a brown liquid, three parts water and
one part black earth, on and on between the low shores,
three parts black earth and one part brackish water, the
Sofala would plow her way up-stream, as she had
done once every month for these seven years or more,
End of the Tether |
