| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: back, and we shall hear more about her then. I doubt it will
be very pleasant news."
VI
THE SUICIDES
Lord Argentine was a great favourite in London
Society. At twenty he had been a poor man, decked with the
surname of an illustrious family, but forced to earn a
livelihood as best he could, and the most speculative of
money-lenders would not have entrusted him with fifty pounds on
the chance of his ever changing his name for a title, and his
poverty for a great fortune. His father had been near enough to
The Great God Pan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: only returned with a sort of explanation; for nobody went far enough, that one
not further than the others. However, he said that the sound proceeded from a
very large owl, in a hollow tree; a sort of learned owl, that continually
knocked its head against the branches. But whether the sound came from
his head or from the hollow tree, that no one could say with certainty. So now
he got the place of "Universal Bellringer," and wrote yearly a short treatise
"On the Owl"; but everybody was just as wise as before.
It was the day of confirmation. The clergyman had spoken so touchingly, the
children who were confirmed had been greatly moved; it was an eventful day for
them; from children they become all at once grown-up-persons; it was as if
their infant souls were now to fly all at once into persons with more
Fairy Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: engine-room, lighted by electric bulbs, from which not a gleam
escaped outside.
Robur himself was at the helm, the regulator within reach of his
hand, so that he could control both our speed and our direction. As
to me, I was forced to descend into my cabin, and the hatchway was
fastened above me. During that night, as on that of our departure
from Niagara, I was not allowed to watch the movements of the
"Terror."
Nevertheless, if I could see nothing of what was passing on board, I
could hear the noises of the machinery. I had first the feeling that
our craft, its bow slightly raised, lost contact with the earth. Some
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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 Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: without the enlarged widely sympathising Adam to beget her, no enlarged
widely comprehending Eve; without an enlarged Adam and an enlarged Eve, no
enlarged and beautified generation of mankind on earth; that an arrest in
one form is an arrest in both; and in the upward march of the entire human
family. The truth that, if at the present day, woman, after her long
upward march side by side with man, developing with him through the
countless ages, by means of the endless exercise of the faculties of mind
and body, has now, at last, reached her ultimate limit of growth, and can
progress no farther; that, then, here also, today, the growth of the human
spirit is to be stayed; that here, on the spot of woman's arrest, is the
standard of the race to be finally planted, to move forward no more, for
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