| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: The awaking traffic, the bestirring birds,
The consentaneous trill of tiny song
That weaves round monumental cornices
A passing charm of beauty. Most of all,
For your light foot I wearied, and your knock
That was the glad reveille of my day.
Lo, now, when to your task in the great house
At morning through the portico you pass,
One moment glance, where by the pillared wall
Far-voyaging island gods, begrimed with smoke,
Sit now unworshipped, the rude monument
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: Market Street. His mother and I sat together one day, discoursing about
our souls.
"'Here, Sampson,' said his mother, 'go and buy sixpence of meiboss from the
Malay round the corner.'
"When he came back she said: 'How much have you got?'
"'Five,' he said.
"He was afraid if he said six and a half she'd ask for some. And, my
friends, that was a lie. The half of a meiboss stuck in his throat and he
died and was buried. And where did the soul of that little liar go to, my
friends? It went to the lake of fire and brimstone. This brings me to the
second point of my discourse.
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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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: He had wandered all night between the two entrenchments; then
disquieted by the fire, he had gone back again trying to see what was
passing in Matho's camp; and, knowing that this spot was nearest to
his tent, he had not stirred from it, in obedience to the priest's
command.
He stood up on one of the horses. Salammbo let herself slide down to
him; and they fled at full gallop, circling the Punic camp in search
of a gate.
Matho had re-entered his tent. The smoky lamp gave but little light,
and he also believed that Salammbo was asleep. Then he delicately
touched the lion's skin on the palm-tree bed. He called but she did
Salammbo |
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 A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: revelation of the ideal Beauty in its visible form. This love, in
short, comprehends both the creature and creation. But so long as
there is no question of this great poetical conception, the loves that
cannot last can only be taken lightly, as if they were in a manner
snatches of song compared with Love the epic.
"To Charles Edward the adventure brought neither the thunderbolt
signal of love's coming, nor yet that gradual revelation of an inward
fairness which draws two natures by degrees more and more strongly
each to each. For there are but two ways of love--love at first sight,
doubtless akin to the Highland 'second-sight,' and that slow fusion of
two natures which realizes Plato's 'man-woman.' But if Charles Edward
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