| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: With such Prophetique greeting?
Speake, I charge you.
Witches vanish.
Banq. The Earth hath bubbles, as the Water ha's,
And these are of them: whither are they vanish'd?
Macb. Into the Ayre: and what seem'd corporall,
Melted, as breath into the Winde.
Would they had stay'd
Banq. Were such things here, as we doe speake about?
Or haue we eaten on the insane Root,
That takes the Reason Prisoner?
Macbeth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: value.
He unfastened the belt and drew the pouch from its
hiding place. He was alone. The balance of the camp,
save the sentries, had retired--none would enter the
Belgian's tent. He fingered the pouch, feeling out the
shapes and sizes of the precious, little nodules
within. He hefted the bag, first in one palm, then in
the other, and at last he wheeled his chair slowly
around before the table, and in the rays of his small
lamp let the glittering gems roll out upon the rough
wood.
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: see God, as it were, undoing his own work, and repenting Him that He had
made man? Awful indeed: but I can honestly say, that it is one from
the investigation of which I have learnt--I cannot yet tell how much:
and of this I am sure, that without that old Alexandrian philosophy, I
should not have been able to do justice to Islam; without Islam I should
not have been able to find in that Alexandrian philosophy, an ever-
living and practical element.
I must, however, first entreat you to dismiss from your minds the vulgar
notion that Mohammed was in anywise a bad man, or a conscious deceiver,
pretending to work miracles, or to do things which he did not do. He
sinned in one instance: but, as far as I can see, only in that one--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 The Sportsman by Xenophon: with timber, so as to prevent the wild beasts seeing over, and without
a portal of admission. What happens then is this: the wild beasts,
hearing the bleating in the night, keep scampering round the barrier,
and finding no passage, leap over it, and are caught.[5]
[5] See "Tales from the Fjeld," Sir George W. Dasent, "Father Bruin in
the Corner."
XII
With regard to methods of procedure in the hunting-field, enough has
been said.[1] But there are many benefits which the enthusiastic
sportsman may expect to derive from this pursuit.[2] I speak of the
health which will thereby accrue to the physical frame, the quickening
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