| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: from the railway, and men there were many and girls were few.
The next morning the other passengers entered the stage with resignation,
knowing the thirty-six hours of evil that lay before them. Lin climbed up
beside the driver. He had a new trunk now.
"Don't get full, Lin," said the clerk, putting the mail-sacks in at the
store.
"My plans ain't settled that far yet," replied Mr. McLean.
"Leave it out of them," said the voice of the bishop, laughing, inside
the stage.
It was a cool, fine air. Gazing over the huge plain down in which lies
Fort Washakie, Lin heard the faint notes of the trumpet on the parade
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: veneration is Candace, whom they call Judith, and indeed if what
they relate of her could be proved, there never was, amongst the
most illustrious and beneficent sovereigns, any to whom their
country was more indebted, for it is said that she being converted
by Inda her eunuch, whom St. Philip baptised, prevailed with her
subjects to quit the worship of idols, and profess the faith of
Jesus Christ. This opinion appears to me without any better
foundation than another of the conversion of the Abyssins to the
Jewish rites by the Queen of Sheba, at her return from the court of
Solomon. They, however, who patronise these traditions give us very
specious accounts of the zeal and piety of the Abyssins at their
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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 Hellenica by Xenophon: [5] Lit. "the boatswains employing a clink of stones and a sliding
motion of the oars."
[6] I.e. "Cape Girdle," mod. Cape Karvura. See Tozer, "Geog. of
Greece," pp. 78, 372.
It was after these events that Chabrias[7] commenced his voyage to
Cyprus, bringing relief to Evagoras. His force consisted at first of
eight hundred light troops and ten triremes, but was further increased
by other vessels from Athens and a body of heavy infantry. Thus
reinforced, the admiral chose a night and landed in Aegina; and
secreted himself in ambuscade with his light troops in hollow ground
some way beyond the temple of Heracles. At break of day, as
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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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: Salammbo was then coming down the galley staircases. All her slave
women followed her; and, at each of her steps, they also descended.
The heads of the Negresses formed big black spots on the line of the
bands of the golden plates clasping the foreheads of the Roman women.
Others had silver arrows, emerald butterflies, or long bodkins set
like suns in their hair. Rings, clasps, necklaces, fringes, and
bracelets shone amid the confusion of white, yellow, and blue
garments; a rustling of light material became audible; the pattering
of sandals might be heard together with the dull sound of naked feet
as they were set down on the wood;--and here and there a tall eunuch,
head and shoulders above them, smiled with his face in air. When the
Salammbo |
