The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: driven down two an end of one another, so far, till they were
assured they were below the channel of the river, and that the
piles, which were shed with iron, entered into the solid chalk rock
adjoining to, or reaching from, the chalk hills on the other side.
These bastions settled considerably at first, as did also part of
the curtain, the great quantity of earth that was brought to fill
them up, necessarily, requiring to be made solid by time; but they
are now firm as the rocks of chalk which they came from, and the
filling up one of these bastions, as I have been told by good
hands, cost the Government 6,000 pounds, being filled with chalk
rubbish fetched from the chalk pits at Northfleet, just above
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: for impertinence. I wonder why governesses are so unpleasant.
The Man of Wrath says it is because they are not married.
Without venturing <138> to differ entirely from the opinion
of experience, I would add that the strain of continually having
to set an example must surely be very great. It is much easier,
and often more pleasant, to be a warning than an example,
and governesses are but women, and women are sometimes foolish,
and when you want to be foolish it must be annoying to have
to be wise.
Minora and Irais arrived yesterday together; or rather,
when the carriage drove up, Irais got out of it alone, and informed
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Sith in thy pride so fair a hope is slain.
'So in thyself thyself art made away;
A mischief worse than civil home-bred strife, 764
Or theirs whose desperate hands themselves do slay,
Or butcher-sire that reeves his son of life.
Foul-cankering rust the hidden treasure frets,
But gold that's put to use more gold begets.' 768
'Nay then,' quoth Adon, 'you will fall again
Into your idle over-handled theme;
The kiss I gave you is bestow'd in vain,
And all in vain you strive against the stream; 772
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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 Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: she love me, for when she saw how the Slaughterer clung to me, as it
wee, instantly she grew jealous--as already she was jealous of Galazi
--and would have been rid of me if she might. Thus it came about that
my heart spoke against Zinita; nor did it tell me worse things of her
than those which she was to do.
CHATPER XXIV
THE SLAYING OF THE BOERS
On the morrow I led Umslopogaas apart, and spoke to him thus:--
"My son, yesterday, when you did not know me except as the Mouth of
Dingaan, you charged me with a certain message for Dingaan the king,
that, had it been delivered into the ears of the king, had surely
Nada the Lily |