| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: good fellow, an excellent fellow, a fellow I always liked. I think it
small of him to take his little disgrace so hard, and shut himself up.
'Grant that it is a ridiculous story, painfully ridiculous,' I keep
telling him. 'Be a man! Live it down, man!' But not he. Of course,
it's just solitude, and shame, and all that. But I confess I'm
beginning to fear the result. It would be all the pities in the world
if a really promising fellow like Weir was to end ill. I'm seriously
tempted to write to Lord Hermiston, and put it plainly to him."
"I would if I were you," some of his auditors would say, shaking the
head, sitting bewildered and confused at this new view of the matter, so
deftly indicated by a single word. "A capital idea!" they would add,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: trade. South Georgia, in south latitude fifty-five degrees,
discovered in 1675, was explored by Captain Cook in 1771. The
Americans immediately commenced carrying seal skins thence to
China, where they obtained the most exorbitant prices. One
million two hundred thousand skins have been taken from that
island alone, and nearly an equal number from the Island of
Desolation, since they were first resorted to for the purpose of
commerce.
The discovery of the South Shetlands, sixty-three degrees south
latitude, in 1818, added surprisingly to the trade in fur seals.
The number taken from the South Shetlands in 1821 and 1822
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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 Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: of foodstuffs should be coming in daily. At present there
are seldom more than twenty. I asked Kamenev about the
schools, and he explained that one of their difficulties was
due to the militarism forced upon them by external attacks.
He explained that the new Red Army soldiers, being mostly
workmen, are accustomed to a higher standard of comfort
than the old army soldiers, who were mostly peasants. They
objected to the planks which served as beds in the old,
abominable, over-crowded and unhealthy barracks.
Trotsky, looking everywhere for places to put his darlings,
found nothing more suitable than the schools; and, in
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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 The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: us, knowing that they too would become extinct but for us.
"Ah, but could we once get a start, I am sure that when all
were true cos-ata-lo there would have been evolved at last
the true dominant race before which all the world would be
forced to bow."
Ajor always spoke of the world as though nothing existed
beyond Caspak. She could not seem to grasp the truth of my
origin or the fact that there were countless other peoples
outside her stern barrier-cliffs. She apparently felt that
I came from an entirely different world. Where it was and
how I came to Caspak from it were matters quite beyond her
The People That Time Forgot |
