| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Vailima Prayers & Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson: dark, all moving quietly and dropping with Samoan decorum in a wide
semicircle on the floor beneath a great lamp that hung from the
ceiling. The service began by my son reading a chapter from the
Samoan Bible, Tusitala following with a prayer in English,
sometimes impromptu, but more often from the notes in this little
book, interpolating or changing with the circumstance of the day.
Then came the singing of one or more hymns in the native tongue,
and the recitation in concert of the Lord's Prayer, also in Samoan.
Many of these hymns were set to ancient tunes, very wild and
warlike, and strangely at variance with the missionary words.
Sometimes a passing band of hostile warriors, with blackened faces,
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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 Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: "I am only conscious of one hope, citoyen."
"And that is?"
"That Satan, your master, will have need of you elsewhere,
before the sun rises to-day."
"You flatter me, citoyenne."
She had detained him for a while, mid-way down the stairs,
trying to get at the thoughts which lay beyond that thin, fox-like
mask. But Chauvelin remained urbane, sarcastic, mysterious; not a
line betrayed to the poor, anxious woman whether she need fear or
whether she dared to hope.
Downstairs on the landing she was soon surrounded. Lady
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: golden fleece; and then my spirit will come back with it, and
I shall sleep with my fathers and have rest.'
He came thus, and called to them often; but when they woke
they looked at each other, and said, 'Who dare sail to
Colchis, or bring home the golden fleece?' And in all the
country none was brave enough to try it; for the man and the
time were not come.
Phrixus had a cousin called AEson, who was king in Iolcos by
the sea. There he ruled over the rich Minuan heroes, as
Athamas his uncle ruled in Boeotia; and, like Athamas, he was
an unhappy man. For he had a step-brother named Pelias, 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 Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: it was fairly well isolated, and as near as possible to the potter’s
field.
Reticence such as this is seldom without a cause, nor
indeed was ours; for our requirements were those resulting from
a life-work distinctly unpopular. Outwardly we were doctors only,
but beneath the surface were aims of far greater and more terrible
moment -- for the essence of Herbert West’s existence was a quest
amid black and forbidden realms of the unknown, in which he hoped
to uncover the secret of life and restore to perpetual animation
the graveyard’s cold clay. Such a quest demands strange materials,
among them fresh human bodies; and in order to keep supplied with
Herbert West: Reanimator |
