| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: imperishable thing, in one's life? If each one of us could but say when
he died: "This one thing I have found out; this one thing I have proved
to be possible; this one eternal fact I have rescued from Hela, the
realm of the formless and unknown," how rich one such generation might
make the world for ever!
But such is not the appointed method. The finders are few and far
between, because the true seekers are few and far between; and a whole
generation has often nothing to show for its existence but one solitary
gem which some one man--often unnoticed in his time--has picked up for
them, and so given them "a local habitation and a name."
Eratosthenes had heard that in Syene, in Upper Egypt, deep wells were
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: reputation of an invincible understanding, an infinite fund of humor--
too dry to flow, and probably in a state of immovable crust,--
and a critical judgment which, if you could ever be fortunate
enough to know it, would be THE thing and no other. It is
a physiognomy seen in all vocations, but perhaps it has never been
more powerful over the youth of England than in a judge of horses.
Mr. Horrock, at a question from Fred about his horse's fetlock,
turned sideways in his saddle, and watched the horse's action for the
space of three minutes, then turned forward, twitched his own bridle,
and remained silent with a profile neither more nor less sceptical
than it had been.
Middlemarch |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: daughter, to the altar of the gods and of my own free will? Well,
I desire no softer bed, and for the why and wherefore it will soon
be known by both of us, and with it many other things.'
CHAPTER XXII
THE TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS
'Otomie,' I said presently, 'when will they kill us?'
'When the point of light lies within the ring that is painted over
your heart,' she answered.
Now I turned my head from her, and looked at the sunbeam which
pierced the shadow above us like a golden pencil. It rested at my
side about six inches from me, and I reckoned that it would lie in
Montezuma's Daughter |
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 Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: Feversham, stupid Wentworth, and timid Richard - even Richard did not
escape the unfavourable criticism they were undergoing in her
subconscious mind. Only Wilding detached in that assembly - as he had
detached in another that she remembered - and stood out in sharp relief
a very man, calm, intrepid, self-possessed; and if she was afraid, she
was more afraid for him than for herself. This was something that,
perhaps, she scarcely realized just then; but she was to realize it
soon.
Feversham was speaking again, asking Blake a fresh question. "And who
betray you to t'is rogue?"
"To Westmacott?" cried Blake. "He was in the plot with me. He was
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