| 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: Billow and breeze, islands and seas,
Mountains of rain and sun,
All that was good, all that was fair,
All that was me is gone.
XLIII - TO S. R. CROCKETT (On receiving a Dedication)
BLOWS the wind to-day, and the sun and the rain are flying,
Blows the wind on the moors to-day and now,
Where about the graves of the martyrs the whaups are crying,
My heart remembers how!
Grey recumbent tombs of the dead in desert places,
Standing stones on the vacant wine-red moor,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Faith of Men by Jack London: hundred miles from the American line, and all of half a thousand
God-forsaken souls live there, giving and taking in marriage, and
starving and dying in-between-whiles. Explorers have overlooked
them, and you will not find them in the census of 1890. A whale-
ship was pinched there once, but the men, who had made shore over
the ice, pulled out for the south and were never heard of.
"But it was a great brew we had, Moosu and I," he added a moment
later, with just the slightest suspicion of a sigh.
I knew there were big deeds and wild doings behind that sigh, so I
haled him into a corner, between a roulette outfit and a poker
layout, and waited for his tongue to thaw.
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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 Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: and urged a halt in all digging toward the northeast. My reasoning
was patently weak - for I mentioned a dearth of blocks, a wish
not to offend the superstitious miners, a possible shortage of
funds from the college, and other things either untrue or irrelevant.
Naturally, no one paid the least attention to my new wishes -
not even my son, whose concern for my health was obvious.
The
next day I was up and around the camp, but took no part in the
excavations. Seeing that I could not stop the work, I decided
to return home as soon as possible for the sake of my nerves,
and made my son promise to fly me in the plane to Perth - a thousand
Shadow out of Time |
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 Sportsman by Xenophon: The hunter should take his hounds and inspect the traps upon the
mountains, early in the morning if possible, though he should do so
also during the day at other times. Those set on cultivated land must
always be inspected early, before the sun is up in fact,[31] and for
this reason: on the hills, so desert is the region,[32] the creatures
may be caught not only at night but at any time of day; while, on the
cultivated lands, owing to their chronic apprehension of mankind in
daytime, night is the only time.[33]
[31] "Before the sun is up."
[32] Or, "thanks to the lonesomeness of the region."
[33] "It is night or never, owing to the dread of man which haunts the
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