| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: manner, and when they had made the allotment they settled their several
countries, and were the shepherds or rather the pilots of mankind, whom
they guided by persuasion, and not by force. Hephaestus and Athena,
brother and sister deities, in mind and art united, obtained as their lot
the land of Attica, a land suited to the growth of virtue and wisdom; and
there they settled a brave race of children of the soil, and taught them
how to order the state. Some of their names, such as Cecrops, Erechtheus,
Erichthonius, and Erysichthon, were preserved and adopted in later times,
but the memory of their deeds has passed away; for there have since been
many deluges, and the remnant who survived in the mountains were ignorant
of the art of writing, and during many generations were wholly devoted to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: snow made a cove over it. It ran on pure and blue and clear as the sky
above it, and the banks of snow made its cradle. Then it came to a spot
where the snow ended; and two ways lay before it by which it might journey;
one, on the mountain ridges, past rocks and stones, and down long sunlit
slopes to the sea; and the other, down a chasm. And the stream hesitated:
it twirled and purled, and went this way and went that. It MIGHT have
been, that it would have forced its way past rocks and ridges and along
mountain slopes, and made a path for itself where no path had been; the
banks would have grown green, and the mountain daisy would have grown
beside it; and all night the stars would have looked at their faces in it;
and down the long sunny slopes the sun would have played on it by day; and
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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 War and the Future by H. G. Wells: uniform wooden crosses, each with its list of soldiers' names.
Unless I am wholly mistaken in France no Germans will ever get a
chance for ever more to desecrate that second cemetery as they
have done its predecessor.
We walked over the mud heaps and litter that had once been houses
towards the centre of Dompierre village, and tried to picture to
ourselves what the place had been. Many things are recognisable
in Dompierre that have altogether vanished at Fricourt; for
instance, there are quire large triangular pieces of the church
wall upstanding at Dompierre. And a mile away perhaps down the
hill on the road towards Amiens, the ruins of the sugar refinery
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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 Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: The children smiled. A bicycle that they knew well was being
walked down the steep lane.
'Where?' Mr Culpeper leaned forward quickly. 'That? Some
countryman's lantern.'
'Wrong, Nick,' said Puck. ''Tis a singular bright star in Virgo,
declining towards the house of Aquarius the water-carrier, who
hath lately been afflicted by Gemini. Aren't I right, Una?'
Mr Culpeper snorted contemptuously.
'No. It's the village nurse going down to the Mill about some
fresh twins that came there last week. Nurse,' Una called, as
the light stopped on the flat, 'when can I see the Morris twins? And
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