| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: of it. All night we sailed in this strange plain. A yellow
dawn showed it still on either side the _Santa Maria_, and
thicker, with fewer blue sea straits and passes than on yesterday.
The Pinta and the Nina stood out with a strange,
enchanted look, as ships crossing a plain more vast than the
plain of Andalusia. Still that floating weed thickened. The
crowned woman at our prow pushed swathes of it to either
side. Our mariners hung over rail, talking, talking. ``What
is it--and where will it end? Mayhap presently we can
not plough it!''
It was again and again to admire how for forty years
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: vanity, by the law of its own existence, would not perceive that
it was the seat of the injury. So she bade Miss Wilson adieu; and
the bee on the window pane was heard no more at Alton College.
The intelligence of Henrietta's death shocked her the more
because she could not help being glad that the only other person
who knew of her folly with regard to Smilash (himself excepted)
was now silenced forever. This seemed to her a terrible discovery
of her own depravity. Under its influence she became almost
religious, and caused some anxiety about her health to her
mother, who was puzzled by her unwonted seriousness, and, in
particular, by her determination not to speak of the misconduct
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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 Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: of his eye. Tuan Reshid, a Faithful and a Hadji, would not want
an infidel woman in his harem; and, seeing Abdulla smile
sceptically at that last objection, he remained silent, not
trusting himself to speak more, not daring to refuse point-blank,
nor yet to say anything compromising. Abdulla understood the
meaning of that silence, and rose to take leave with a grave
salaam. He wished his friend Almayer "a thousand years," and
moved down the steps, helped dutifully by Reshid. The torch-
bearers shook their torches, scattering a shower of sparks into
the river, and the cortege moved off, leaving Almayer agitated
but greatly relieved by their departure. He dropped into a chair
Almayer's Folly |
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 Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: and guardian, and were to seize a sword and, going to the doors of his
house, were to enquire if he were at home, meaning to slay only him and no
one else:--the servants reply, 'Yes': (Mind, I do not mean that you would
really do such a thing; but there is nothing, you think, to prevent a man
who is ignorant of the best, having occasionally the whim that what is
worst is best?
ALCIBIADES: No.)
SOCRATES:--If, then, you went indoors, and seeing him, did not know him,
but thought that he was some one else, would you venture to slay him?
ALCIBIADES: Most decidedly not (it seems to me). (These words are omitted
in several MSS.)
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