| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: may sum up the cheerful doctrine thus: All men become vampires,
and the vampire spares none. And here we come face to face with a
tempting inconsistency. For the whistling spirits are notoriously
clannish; I understood them to wait upon and to enlighten kinsfolk
only, and that the medium was always of the race of the
communicating spirit. Here, then, we have the bonds of the family,
on the one hand, severed at the hour of death; on the other,
helpfully persisting.
The child's soul in the Tahitian tale was wrapped in leaves. It is
the spirits of the newly dead that are the dainty. When they are
slain, the house is stained with blood. Rua's dead fisherman was
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: was precious in the camp.
Under some bushes a few yards off lay a huge trooper, whose nationality was
uncertain, but who was held to hail from some part of the British Isles,
and who had travelled round the world. He was currently reported to have
done three years' labour for attempted rape in Australia, but nothing
certain was known regarding his antecedents. He had been up on guard half
the night, and was now taking his rest lying on his back with his arm
thrown over his face; but a slight movement could be noted in his jaw as he
slowly chewed a piece of tobacco; and occasionally when he turned it round
the mouth opened, and disclosed two rows of broken yellow stumps set in
very red gums.
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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 The Iliad by Homer: battle than go home in their ships.
The son of Atreus shouted aloud and bade the Argives gird
themselves for battle while he put on his armour. First he girded
his goodly greaves about his legs, making them fast with ankle-
clasps of silver; and about his chest he set the breastplate
which Cinyras had once given him as a guest-gift. It had been
noised abroad as far as Cyprus that the Achaeans were about to
sail for Troy, and therefore he gave it to the king. It had ten
courses of dark cyanus, twelve of gold, and ten of tin. There
were serpents of cyanus that reared themselves up towards the
neck, three upon either side, like the rainbows which the son of
The Iliad |
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 Critias by Plato: constructed buildings about them and planted suitable trees, also they made
cisterns, some open to the heaven, others roofed over, to be used in winter
as warm baths; there were the kings' baths, and the baths of private
persons, which were kept apart; and there were separate baths for women,
and for horses and cattle, and to each of them they gave as much adornment
as was suitable. Of the water which ran off they carried some to the grove
of Poseidon, where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and
beauty, owing to the excellence of the soil, while the remainder was
conveyed by aqueducts along the bridges to the outer circles; and there
were many temples built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places
of exercise, some for men, and others for horses in both of the two islands
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