| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: I was on my feet in a minute. The reef on which we had struck
was close in under the southwest end of Mull, off a little isle
they call Earraid, which lay low and black upon the larboard.
Sometimes the swell broke clean over us; sometimes it only ground
the poor brig upon the reef, so that we could hear her beat
herself to pieces; and what with the great noise of the sails,
and the singing of the wind, and the flying of the spray in the
moonlight, and the sense of danger, I think my head must have
been partly turned, for I could scarcely understand the things I
saw.
Presently I observed Mr. Riach and the seamen busy round the
Kidnapped |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: In 1597 he bought New Place, Stratford.
Thirteen or fourteen busy years follow; years in which he
accumulated money, and also reputation as actor and manager.
Meantime his name, liberally and variously spelt, had
become associated with a number of great plays and poems, as
(ostensibly) author of the same.
Some of these, in these years and later, were pirated, but
he made no protest.
Then--1610-11--he returned to Stratford and settled down for
good and all, and busied himself in lending money, trading in
tithes, trading in land and houses; shirking a debt of forty-one
What is Man? |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: dangerously wounded. He did not answer, and one of the
attendants, leaping from his horse, opened the umbril of his
helmet, disclosing the dull, hollow eyes, the ashy, colorless
lips, and the waxy forehead, upon which stood great beads of
sweat.
"Water! water!" he cried, hoarsely; "give me to drink!" Then,
quitting his hold upon the horse, he started blindly across the
lists towards the gate of the barrier. A shadow that chilled his
heart seemed to fall upon him. "It is death," he muttered; then
he stopped, then swayed for an instant, and then toppled
headlong, crashing as he fell.
Men of Iron |
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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: cannot say that it never troubled him, but in time there came a
compensation of which I shall have presently to speak.
And then he had so much the more time to himself. The other lads
were sometimes occupied by their household duties when sports
were afoot in which they would liked to have taken part. Myles
was always free to enter into any matter of the kind after his
daily exercise had been performed at the pels, the butts, or the
tilting-court.
But even though he was never called to do service in "my Lord's
house," he was not long in gaining a sort of second-hand
knowledge of all the family. My Lady, a thin, sallow, faded dame,
Men of Iron |
