| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: 'My dear sir,' said the Australian emphatically, 'it isn't
possible to understand unless you saw them.'
'That is a painful circumstance,' said Gideon; he glanced
pityingly in the direction of the culprit, and, observing on his
countenance every mark of confusion, pityingly withdrew his eyes.
'And that would be nothing,' continued Mr Dickson sternly, 'but I
wish--I wish from my heart, sir, I could say that Mr Thomas's
hands were clean. He has no excuse; for he was engaged at the
time--and is still engaged--to the belle of Constantinople, Ga.
My friend's conduct was unworthy of the brutes that perish.'
'Ga.?' repeated Gideon enquiringly.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: was talking to a friend."
"This is to argue in a circle," said the lawyer. "I cannot be
convinced till I have heard you. I cannot be your friend till I
am properly informed. If you were more trustful, it would better
befit your time of life. And you know, Mr. Balfour, we have a
proverb in the country that evil-doers are aye evil-dreaders."
"You are not to forget, sir," said I, "that I have already
suffered by my trustfulness; and was shipped off to be a slave by
the very man that (if I rightly understand) is your employer?"
All this while I had been gaining ground with Mr. Rankeillor, and
in proportion as I gained ground, gaining confidence. But at
Kidnapped |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: infinitesimal activity of ganglia, which we know (as we know a
proposition in Euclid) to be the source and substance of the
whole? At the death of every one whom we love, some fair and
honourable portion of our existence falls away, and we are
dislodged from one of these dear provinces; and they are not,
perhaps, the most fortunate who survive a long series of such
impoverishments, till their life and influence narrow
gradually into the meagre limit of their own spirits, and
death, when he comes at last, can destroy them at one blow.
NOTE. - To this essay I must in honesty append a word or
two of qualification; for this is one of the points on which a
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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 Blix by Frank Norris:
They looked as though he had--great, fat chunks of bread, the
crust still on; the "devilish" ham in thick strata between; and,
positively, he had BUTTERED the bread. But it was all one with
them; they ate as though at a banquet, and Blix even took off her
hat and hung it upon one of the nearby bushes. Of course Condy
had forgotten a corkscrew. He tried to dig out the cork of the
claret bottle with his knife, until he had broken both blades and
was about to give up in despair, when Blix, at the end of her
patience, took the bottle from him and pushed in the cork with her
finger.
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