| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: appearance of mortification; and Wishart expressed a hope that
he might, at least, be ultimately capable of keeping the light
at the Bell Rock, as it was not now likely that he would
assist further in building the house.
[Saturday, 8th July]
It was remarked to-day, with no small demonstration of
joy, that the tide, being neap, did not, for the first time,
overflow the building at high-water. Flags were accordingly
hoisted on the beacon-house, and crane on the top of the
building, which were repeated from the floating light,
Lighthouse yacht, tender, SMEATON, PATRIOT, and the two
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: have spoken the truth, then, and then only, can we be confident; still, we
may venture to assert that what has been said by us is probable, and will
be rendered more probable by investigation. Let us assume thus much.
The creation of the rest of the body follows next in order, and this we may
investigate in a similar manner. And it appears to be very meet that the
body should be framed on the following principles:--
The authors of our race were aware that we should be intemperate in eating
and drinking, and take a good deal more than was necessary or proper, by
reason of gluttony. In order then that disease might not quickly destroy
us, and lest our mortal race should perish without fulfilling its end--
intending to provide against this, the gods made what is called the lower
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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 An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: of a priest; his eyes are stolid with an indifference which he holds
as a barrier against the world of fools who do not understand him; his
forehead is adamant under insult; he pursues his ends like a reptile
whose carapace is fractured only by a cannonball; but (like that
reptile) he is all the more furious when the blow does reach him,
because he believed his armor invulnerable. The lash of the whip upon
his fingers was to Corentin, pain apart, the cannonball that cracked
the shell. Coming from that magnificent and noble girl, this action,
emblematic of her disgust, humiliated him, not only in the eyes of the
people about him, but in his own.
Peyrade sprang to the hearth, caught Laurence's foot, raised it, and
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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 Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: for us though his dust be turning into the flowers which he loved:
and as it is with the greater artists, poet and philosopher and
song-bird, so let it be with you.
LECTURE TO ART STUDENTS
IN the lecture which it is my privilege to deliver before you to-
night I do not desire to give you any abstract definition of beauty
at all. For we who are working in art cannot accept any theory of
beauty in exchange for beauty itself, and, so far from desiring to
isolate it in a formula appealing to the intellect, we, on the
contrary, seek to materialise it in a form that gives joy to the
soul through the senses. We want to create it, not to define it.
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