| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: volley, which caught the ship's crews entirely unprepared and
the sighting apparatus of the guns unprotected from the
deadly aim of our warriors.
It seems that each green warrior has certain objective points
for his fire under relatively identical circumstances of warfare.
For example, a proportion of them, always the best marksmen,
direct their fire entirely upon the wireless finding and
sighting apparatus of the big guns of an attacking naval
force; another detail attends to the smaller guns in the same
way; others pick off the gunners; still others the officers;
while certain other quotas concentrate their attention upon the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: gunboat lying black and still without a sound in her at the mouth
of the glassy cove. But with tropical swiftness the sun had
climbed twice its diameter above the horizon before we had rounded
the reef and got abreast of the point. On the biggest boulder
there stood Freya, all in white and, in her helmet, like a feminine
and martial statue with a rosy face, as I could see very well with
my glasses. She fluttered an expressive handkerchief, and Jasper,
running up the main rigging of the white and warlike brig, waved
his hat in response. Shortly afterwards we parted, I to the
northward and Jasper heading east with a light wind on the quarter,
for Banjermassin and two other ports, I believe it was, that trip.
'Twixt Land & Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: coast were reefs, around which the water foamed and sparkled, giving
them the appearance of great white roses, floating on the liquid
surface or resting on the shore. Seeing this barren tract with the
ocean on one side, and on the other the arm of the sea which runs up
between Croisic and the rocky shore of Guerande, at the base of which
lay the salt marshes, denuded of vegetation, I looked at Pauline and
asked her if she felt the courage to face the burning sun and the
strength to walk through sand.
"I have boots," she said. "Let us go," and she pointed to the tower of
Batz, which arrested the eye by its immense pile placed there like a
pyramid; but a slender, delicately outlined pyramid, a pyramid so
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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 Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: what they said, not only because, in the corruption of our manners, there
are few disposed to speak exactly as they believe, but also because very
many are not aware of what it is that they really believe; for, as the act
of mind by which a thing is believed is different from that by which we
know that we believe it, the one act is often found without the other.
Also, amid many opinions held in equal repute, I chose always the most
moderate, as much for the reason that these are always the most convenient
for practice, and probably the best (for all excess is generally vicious),
as that, in the event of my falling into error, I might be at less
distance from the truth than if, having chosen one of the extremes, it
should turn out to be the other which I ought to have adopted. And I
Reason Discourse |
