| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: the carak found its way to Ditchingham,--she no longer thought of
marriage, though more than one gentleman of condition had sought
her hand. This, with some minor matters, such as the birth and
death of children, and the story of the great storm and flood that
smote Bungay, and indeed the length of the vale of Waveney in those
days, was all the tale that they had to tell who had grown from
youth to middle age in quiet. For of the crowning and end of kings
and of matters politic, such as the downfall of the power of the
Pope of Rome and the sacking of the religious houses which was
still in progress, I make no mention here.
But now they called for mine, and I began it at the beginning, and
Montezuma's Daughter |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: entertainments; was presented to the chief guests; and altogether made
more of than I thought accorded either with my parts or station; so
that, on strangers being present, I would often blush for
Prestongrange. It must be owned the view I had taken of the world in
these last months was fit to cast a gloom upon my character. I had met
many men, some of them leaders in Israel whether by their birth or
talents; and who among them all had shown clean hands? As for the
Browns and Millers, I had seen their self-seeking, I could never again
respect them. Prestongrange was the best yet; he had saved me, spared
me rather, when others had it in their minds to murder me outright; but
the blood of James lay at his door; and I thought his present
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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 A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: loved France so much less. For the same reasons which I have suggested
before, self-interest, behind which lay her democratic kinship with our
ideals, ranged her with us.
To place my third jackstraw, which follows twenty years after the second,
uninterruptedly in this group, I pass over for the moment our War of 1812.
To that I will return after I have dealt with the third jackstraw,
namely, the Monroe Doctrine. It was England that suggested the Monroe
Doctrine to us. From the origin of this in the mind of Canning to its
public announcement upon our side of the water, the pattern to which I
have alluded is for the third time very clearly to be seen.
How much did your school histories tell you about the Monroe Doctrine? I
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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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: So, one by one, we'll weed them all at last,
And you yourself shall steer the happy helm.
[Sennet. Enter the KING, DUKE HUMPHREY, CARDINAL
BEAUFORT, BUCKINGHAM, YORK, SOMERSET, SALISBURY,
WARWICK, and the DUCHESS OF GLOSTER.]
KING.
For my part, noble lords, I care not which;
Or Somerset or York, all's one to me.
YORK.
If York have ill demean'd himself in France,
Then let him be denay'd the regentship.
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