| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: where I had expected to find a community of civilized and
enlightened people.
Each of us was armed with rifle, revolver, and cutlass, but
as we stood shoulder to shoulder facing the wild men I was
loath to give the command to fire upon them, inflicting
death or suffering upon strangers with whom we had no
quarrel, and so I attempted to restrain them for the moment
that we might parley with them.
To this end I raised my left hand above my head with the
palm toward them as the most natural gesture indicative of
peaceful intentions which occurred to me. At the same time
Lost Continent |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: But one, poore one, one poore and louing Child,
But one thing to reioyce and solace in,
And cruell death hath catcht it from my sight
Nur. O wo, O wofull, wofull, wofull day,
Most lamentable day, most wofull day,
That euer, euer, I did yet behold.
O day, O day, O day, O hatefull day,
Neuer was seene so blacke a day as this:
O wofull day, O wofull day
Pa. Beguild, diuorced, wronged, spighted, slaine,
Most detestable death, by thee beguil'd,
Romeo and Juliet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: is only at home, in dock, that she lies abandoned, shut off from
freedom by all the artifices of men that think of quick despatch
and profitable freights. It is only then that the odious,
rectangular shadows of walls and roofs fall upon her decks, with
showers of soot.
To a man who has never seen the extraordinary nobility, strength,
and grace that the devoted generations of ship-builders have
evolved from some pure nooks of their simple souls, the sight that
could be seen five-and-twenty years ago of a large fleet of
clippers moored along the north side of the New South Dock was an
inspiring spectacle. Then there was a quarter of a mile of them,
The Mirror of the Sea |
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 Hellenica by Xenophon: the point of entering, in terror lest the Lacedaemonians might pour
into the town in company, and these Boeotian troopers were forced to
cling, like bats to a wall, under each coign of vantage beneath the
battlements. Had it not been for the accidental absence of the
Cretans,[9] who had gone off on a raid to Nauplia, without a doubt
numbers of men and horses would have been shot down. At a later date,
while encamping in the neighbourhood of the Enclosures,[10] a thunder-
bolt fell into his camp. One or two men were struck, while others died
from the effect of the concussion on their brains. At a still later
period he was anxious to fortify some sort of garrison outpost in the
pass of Celusa,[11] but upon offering sacrifice the victims proved
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