| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: broke its back before it ever ventured into the air, and this
solitary experience proving so disastrous, the rigid form of
construction was abandoned once and for all. The venture was not
in vain; it brought home to the British authorities more
convincingly than anything else that the Zeppelin was a
mechanical monstrosity. The French never even contemplated the
construction of such a craft at that time, estimating it at its
true value, and the British failure certainly served to support
French antagonism to the idea. Subsequently, however, an attempt
at rigid construction was made in France with the "Spiess"
airship, mainly as a concession to public clamour.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: With juice of blood-red mulberries smeared him o'er,
Both brow and temples. Laughing at their guile,
And crying, "Why tie the fetters? loose me, boys;
Enough for you to think you had the power;
Now list the songs you wish for- songs for you,
Another meed for her" -forthwith began.
Then might you see the wild things of the wood,
With Fauns in sportive frolic beat the time,
And stubborn oaks their branchy summits bow.
Not Phoebus doth the rude Parnassian crag
So ravish, nor Orpheus so entrance the heights
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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 Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: arrow would be fitted in, stands Balmoral, with its Castle, and
its Gardens, and its Park, and pleasant cottages and homesteads
all around. And when you have looked at the beautiful
amphitheatre of forest at your feet, and looked too at the great
mountains to the westward, and Benaun, and Benna-buird and Benna-
muicdhui, with their bright patches of eternal snow, I should
advise you to look at the rock on which you stand, and see what
you see there. And you will see that on the side of the Coiles
towards Lochnagar, and between the knolls of them, are scattered
streams, as it were, of great round boulder stones--which are not
serpentine, but granite from the top of Lochnagar, five miles
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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 The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: after having passed from professional ladies to military ladies,
from the lawyer's dame to the baroness, there was question of
nothing less with Porthos than a foreign princess, who was
enormously fond of him.
An old proverb says, "Like master, like man." Let us pass, then,
from the valet of Athos to the valet of Porthos, from Grimaud to
Mousqueton.
Mousqueton was a Norman, whose pacific name of Boniface his
master had changed into the infinitely more sonorous name of
Mousqueton. He had entered the service of Porthos upon condition
that he should only be clothed and lodged, though in a handsome
The Three Musketeers |
