| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: morning. Having no such authority, as your past conduct now makes
clear, having no reason to hope that a proper sentiment of gratitude
to me will induce to give heed to this my most earnest request, I
am compelled to add that should you survive to-morrow's encounter,
I can in no circumstances ever again permit myself to be conscious
of your existence. If any spark survives of the affection that once
you expressed for me, or if you set any value upon the affection,
which, in spite of all that you have done to forfeit it, is the
chief prompter of this letter, you will not refuse to do as I am
asking."
It was not a tactful letter. M. de Kercadiou was not a tactful man.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: reproach. For no man is voluntarily bad; but the bad become bad by reason
of an ill disposition of the body and bad education, things which are
hateful to every man and happen to him against his will. And in the case
of pain too in like manner the soul suffers much evil from the body. For
where the acid and briny phlegm and other bitter and bilious humours wander
about in the body, and find no exit or escape, but are pent up within and
mingle their own vapours with the motions of the soul, and are blended with
them, they produce all sorts of diseases, more or fewer, and in every
degree of intensity; and being carried to the three places of the soul,
whichever they may severally assail, they create infinite varieties of
ill-temper and melancholy, of rashness and cowardice, and also of
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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 Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: tradition hummed in my young ears) which was once ours, and is now
unjustly some one else's, and for that matter (in the state of the
sugar trade) is not worth anything to anybody. I do not say that
these revolutions are likely; only no man can deny that they are
possible; and the past, on the other baud, is, lost for ever: our
old days and deeds, our old selves, too, and the very world in
which these scenes were acted, all brought down to the same faint
residuum as a last night's dream, to some incontinuous images, and
an echo in the chambers of the brain. Not an hour, not a mood, not
a glance of the eye, can we revoke; it is all gone, past conjuring.
And yet conceive us robbed of it, conceive that little thread 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 Peter Pan by James M. Barrie: "Wendy," he said, striding up and down, "I have asked the
redskins to guide you through the wood, as flying tires you so."
"Thank you, Peter."
"Then," he continued, in the short sharp voice of one
accustomed to be obeyed, "Tinker Bell will take you across the
sea. Wake her, Nibs."
Nibs had to knock twice before he got an answer, though Tink
had really been sitting up in bed listening for some time.
"Who are you? How dare you? Go away," she cried.
"You are to get up, Tink," Nibs called, "and take Wendy on a
journey."
Peter Pan |
