| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: word here, a line there, a fortunate page of just feeling in the
right place, some happy simplicity, or even some lucky subtlety,
has drawn from the great multitude of fellow beings even as a
fish is drawn from the depths of the sea. Fishing is notoriously
(I am talking now of the deep sea) a matter of luck. As to one's
enemies, they will take care of themselves.
There is a gentleman, for instance, who, metaphorically speaking,
jumps upon me with both feet. This image has no grace, but it is
exceedingly apt to the occasion--to the several occasions. I
don't know precisely how long he has been indulging in that
intermittent exercise, whose seasons are ruled by the custom of
A Personal Record |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: remember to have seen in happier days. I rest against a tree, and
consider that in the same shade I once disputed upon the annual
overflow of the Nile with a friend who is now silent in the grave.
I cast my eyes upwards, fix them on the changing moon, and think
with pain on the vicissitudes of life. I have ceased to take much
delight in physical truth; for what have I to do with those things
which I am soon to leave?"
"You may at least recreate yourself," said Imlac, "with the
recollection of an honourable and useful life, and enjoy the praise
which all agree to give you."
"Praise," said the sage with a sigh, "is to an old man an empty
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: it made him stagger, with a rush of blood to his head. Two white
figures, distinct against the light, stood in an unmistakable
attitude. Freya's arms were round Jasper's neck. Their faces were
characteristically superimposed on each other, and Heemskirk went
on, his throat choked with a sudden rising of curses, till on the
west verandah he stumbled blindly against a chair and then dropped
into another as though his legs had been swept from under him. He
had indulged too long in the habit of appropriating Freya to
himself in his thoughts. "Is that how you entertain your visitors
- you . . " he thought, so outraged that he could not find a
sufficiently degrading epithet.
'Twixt Land & 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 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: love on La's part. She had grown to young womanhood a
cold and heartless creature, daughter of a thousand
other cold, heartless, beautiful women who had never
known love. And so when love came to her it liberated
all the pent passions of a thousand generations,
transforming La into a pulsing, throbbing volcano of
desire, and with desire thwarted this great force of
love and gentleness and sacrifice was transmuted by its
own fires into one of hatred and revenge.
It was in a state of mind superinduced by these
conditions that La led forth her jabbering company to
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
