| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: Hac oratione ab Diviciaco habita omnes qui aderant magno fletu
auxilium a Caesare petere coeperunt. Animadvertit Caesar unos ex omnibus
Sequanos nihil earum rerum facere quas ceteri facerent sed tristes capite
demisso terram intueri. Eius rei quae causa esset miratus ex ipsis
quaesiit. Nihil Sequani respondere, sed in eadem tristitia taciti
permanere. Cum ab his saepius quaereret neque ullam omnino vocem
exprimere posset, idem Diviacus Haeduus respondit: hoc esse miseriorem et
graviorem fortunam Sequanorum quam reliquorum, quod soli ne in occulto
quidem queri neque auxilium implorare auderent absentisque Ariovisti
crudelitatem, velut si cora adesset, horrerent, propterea quod reliquis
tamen fugae facultas daretur, Sequanis vero, qui intra fines suos
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: as I trekked along down by the Oliphant River, I used to creep from the
waggon at dawn and look out. But there was no river to be seen--only a
long line of billows of what looked like the finest cotton wool tossed
up lightly with a pitchfork. It was the fever mist. Out from among the
scrub, too, came little spirals of vapour, as though there were hundreds
of tiny fires alight in it--reek rising from thousands of tons of
rotting vegetation. It was a beautiful place, but the beauty was the
beauty of death; and all those lines and blots of vapour wrote one great
word across the surface of the country, and that word was 'fever.'
"It was a dreadful year of illness that. I came, I remember, to one
little kraal of Knobnoses, and went up to it to see if I could get some
Long Odds |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: When I got to the library I came to a standstill,--ah, the dear room,
what happy times I have spent in it rummaging amongst the books,
making plans for my garden, building castles in the air, writing,
dreaming, doing nothing! There was a big peat fire blazing half up
the chimney, and the old housekeeper had put pots of flowers about,
and on the writingtable was a great bunch of violets scenting the room.
"Oh, how good it is to be home again!" I sighed in my satisfaction.
The babies clung about my knees, looking up at me with eyes full of love.
Outside the dazzling snow and sunshine, inside the bright room
and happy faces--I thought of those yellow fogs and shivered. <121>
The library is not used by the Man of Wrath ; it is
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
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 Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: pardon."
I was silent, and looked at him closely so as to carve his features,
as it were, on my memory. Presently an expression of disgust crossed
his face.
"I have been very cowardly," he said. "During all last night I begged
for mercy of these walls," and he pointed to the sides of his dungeon.
"Yes, yes, I howled with despair, I rebelled, I suffered the most
awful moral agony--I was alone! Now I think of what others will say of
me. Courage is a garment to put on. I desire to go decently to death,
therefore--"
A DOUBLE RETRIBUTION
|
