| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: But I will take up no more of your time with this relation, but proceed
to give you some Observations of the Carp, and how to angle for him;
and to dress him but not till he is caught.
The fourth day - continued
On the Carp
Chapter IX
Piscator
The Carp is the queen of rivers; a stately, a good, and a very subtil fish;
that was not at first bred, nor hath been long in England, but is now
naturalised. It is said, they were brought hither by one Mr. Mascal, a
gentleman that then lived at Plumsted in Sussex, a county that abounds
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: you may depart"; and, as before at the mention of God's name, the
little devil was hurled into the earth like a flash, and nothing
was left but the hole to show where he had gone.
Soon afterward Ivan returned home, to find his brother Tarras and
his wife there. Tarras-Briukhan could not pay his debts, and was
forced to flee from his creditors and seek refuge under his
father's roof. Seeing Ivan, he said: "Well, Ivan, may we remain
here until I start in some new business?"
Ivan replied as he had before to Simeon: "Yes, you are perfectly
welcome to remain here as long as it suits you."
With that announcement he removed his coat and seated himself at
The Kreutzer Sonata |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: Plato; and mistakes of fact, as e.g. about the Thirty Tyrants, whom the
writer of the letters seems to have confused with certain inferior
magistrates, making them in all fifty-one. These palpable errors and
absurdities are absolutely irreconcileable with their genuineness. And as
they appear to have a common parentage, the more they are studied, the more
they will be found to furnish evidence against themselves. The Seventh,
which is thought to be the most important of these Epistles, has affinities
with the Third and the Eighth, and is quite as impossible and inconsistent
as the rest. It is therefore involved in the same condemnation.--The final
conclusion is that neither the Seventh nor any other of them, when
carefully analyzed, can be imagined to have proceeded from the hand or mind
|
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 Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: but try, Macumazahn; and mayhap we shall be there in time to
split that old "witch-finder's" [Agon's] skull for him. Once
he wanted to burn us, the old "rain-maker", did he? And now
he would set a snare for my mother [Nyleptha], would he? Good!
So sure as my name is the name of the Woodpecker, so surely,
be my mother alive or dead, will I split him to the beard. Ay,
by T'Chaka's head I swear it!' and he shook Inkosi-kaas as he
galloped. By now the darkness was closing in, but fortunately
there would be a moon later, and the road was good.
On we sped through the twilight, the two splendid horses we bestrode
had got their wind by this, and were sweeping along with a wide
Allan Quatermain |
