| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: "Well, it's about a carpenter and a poetic Victorian child, you
know, and some shavin's. The child made no end out of the
shavin's. So might you. Powder 'em. They might be anything.
Soak 'em in jipper,--Xylo-tobacco! Powder'em and get a little
tar and turpentinous smell in,--wood-packing for hot baths--a
Certain Cure for the scourge of Influenza! There's all these
patent grain foods,--what Americans call cereals. I believe I'm
right, sir, in saying they're sawdust."
"No!" said my uncle, removing his cigar; "as far as I can find
out it's really grain,--spoilt grain.... I've been going into
that."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: so think it no shame that your Denby man was cast by such a wrestler.
He beareth you no ill will for what hath passed, but let it be a warning
to you how ye treat strangers henceforth. Had ye slain him it would
have been an ill day for you, for Robin Hood would have harried your
town as the kestrel harries the dovecote. I have bought the pipe
of wine from him, and now I give it freely to you to drink as ye list.
But never hereafterward fall upon a man for being a stout yeoman."
At this all shouted amain; but in truth they thought more of the wine
than of the Knight's words. Then Sir Richard, with David beside him
and his men-at-arms around, turned about and left the fair.
But in after days, when the men that saw that wrestling bout were bent
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: that improvises all construction. But be that as it may--be the
instinct less or more than that of inferior animals--like or unlike
theirs, still the human art is dependent on that first, and then
upon an amount of practice, of science,--and of imagination
disciplined by thought, which the true possessor of it knows to be
incommunicable, and the true critic of it, inexplicable, except
through long process of laborious' years. That journey of life's
conquest, in which hills over hills, and Alps on Alps arose, and
sank,--do you think you can make another trace it painlessly, by
talking? Why, you cannot even carry us up an Alp, by talking. You
can guide us up it, step by step, no otherwise--even so, best
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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 Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: and at the trump of God, shall the dead arise and stand before
his awful throne. Now the Resurrection is the re-uniting of soul
and body. So that very body, which decayeth and perisheth, shall
arise incorruptible. And concerning this, beware lest the
reasoning of unbelief overtake thee; for it is not impossible for
him, who at the beginning formed the body out of earth, when
according to its Maker's doom it hath returned to earth whence it
was taken, to raise the same again. If thou wilt but consider
how many things God hath made out of nothing, this proof shall
suffice thee. He took earth and made man, though earth was not
man before. How then did earth become man? And how was earth,
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