| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: learn his language, and after he had cautiously determined that I
really meant it, he took the greatest pains-always gravely-to
teach me. A more human feeling sprang up between us.
But we had still the final test to undergo-that of danger and
the tight corner.
In close quarters the gunbearer has the hardest job in the world.
I have the most profound respect for his absolute courage. Even
to a man armed and privileged to shoot and defend himself, a
charging lion is an awesome thing, requiring a certain amount of
coolness and resolution to face effectively. Think of the
gunbearer at his elbow, depending not on himself but on the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: "I didn't--I am sorry to say. I had an appointment at nine o'clock--
too late for me to catch the train that would have met yours,
or to get home at all."
Looking at his loved one as she appeared to him now, in his
tender thought the sweetest and most disinterested comrade
that he had ever had, living largely in vivid imaginings,
so ethereal a creature that her spirit could be seen trembling
through her limbs, he felt heartily ashamed of his earthliness
in spending the hours he had spent in Arabella's company.
There was something rude and immoral in thrusting these recent facts
of his life upon the mind of one who, to him, was so uncarnate
Jude the Obscure |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: those of sleep.[11]
[7] Or, "if I may trust my powers of observation I would say that
common men are capable of pains and pleasures conveyed through
certain avenues of sense, as sight through our eyes, sounds
through our ears, smells through our noses, and meats and drinks
through our mouths."
[8] Cf. Cic. "de N. D." ii. 56, S. 141.
[9] Reading {edesthai te kai lupeisthai . . .} or if with Breit
reading {ote d' au lupeisthai}, transl. "then as to good and evil
we are affected pleasurably or painfully, as the case may be:
sometimes, if I am right in my conclusion, through the mind itself
|
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 The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: harassed and out of spirits. But other guests had, in the
meanwhile, arrived at the castle; and, after the recent loss
sustained by the owner had been related, wondered at, and
lamented, the recollection of it was, for the present, drowned in
the discussion of deep political intrigues, of which the crisis
and explosion were momentarily looked for.
Several of the gentlemen who took part in this divan were
Catholics, and all of them stanch Jacobites, whose hopes were at
present at the highest pitch, as an invasion, in favour of the
Pretender, was daily expected from France, which Scotland,
between the defenceless state of its garrisons and fortified
|
