| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: their paint glistening freshly, sat high-sided with ponderous
dignity alongside the wooden jetties, looking more like unmovable
buildings than things meant to go afloat; others, half loaded, far
on the way to recover the true sea-physiognomy of a ship brought
down to her load-line, looked more accessible. Their less steeply
slanting gangways seemed to invite the strolling sailors in search
of a berth to walk on board and try "for a chance" with the chief
mate, the guardian of a ship's efficiency. As if anxious to remain
unperceived amongst their overtopping sisters, two or three
"finished" ships floated low, with an air of straining at the leash
of their level headfasts, exposing to view their cleared decks and
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: a stealthy power made manifest only by the chang-
ing vistas of the islands fringing the east shore of
the Gulf. And there were winds, too, fitful and
deceitful. They raised hopes only to dash them
into the bitterest disappointment, promises of
advance ending in lost ground, expiring in sighs,
dying into dumb stillness in which the currents
had it all their own way--their own inimical
way.
The island of Koh-ring, a great, black, up-
heaved ridge amongst a lot of tiny islets, lying
The Shadow Line |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: A DIVINE IMAGE
Cruelty has a human heart,
And Jealousy a human face;
Terror the human form divine,
And Secrecy the human dress.
The human dress is forged iron,
The human form a fiery forge,
The human face a furnace sealed,
The human heart its hungry gorge.
A CRADLE SONG
Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
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 Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: ponderability? Why is a diamond any more chargeable with
"grossness" than a cubic centimetre of hydrogen? Obviously such
fancies are purely of mythologic parentage. Now the luminiferous
ether, upon which our authors make such extensive demands, may be
physically "ethereal" enough, in spite of the enormous elasticity
which leads Professor Jevons to characterize it as "adamantine";
but most assuredly we have not the slightest reason for speaking
of it as "immaterial" or "spiritual." Though we are unable to
weigh it in the balance, we at least know it as a transmitter of
undulatory movements, the size and shape of which we can
accurately measure. Its force-relations with ponderable matter
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
