| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: seldom allows to make a safe landing after much toil and
bitterness at the oar. I confess to an abiding affection for
that energetic, slight, fragile, intensely living and transient
figure. He liked me even before we met on the strength of a page
or two of my writing, and after we had met I am glad to think he
liked me still. He used to point out to me with great
earnestness, and even with some severity, that "a boy ought to
have a dog." I suspect that he was shocked at my neglect of
parental duties. Ultimately it was he who provided the dog.
Shortly afterwards, one day, after playing with the child on the
rug for an hour or so with the most intense absorption, he raised
Some Reminiscences |
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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: buttoned myself into my coat, and walked on in a pleasant frame of
mind with all men, when suddenly, at a corner, there was Fouzilhic
once more in front of me. Nor only that, but there was the old
gentleman who had escorted me so far the night before, running out
of his house at sight of me, with hands upraised in horror.
'My poor boy!' he cried, 'what does this mean?'
I told him what had happened. He beat his old hands like clappers
in a mill, to think how lightly he had let me go; but when he heard
of the man of Fouzilhac, anger and depression seized upon his mind.
'This time, at least,' said he, 'there shall be no mistake.'
And he limped along, for he was very rheumatic, for about half a
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