| 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: about this document a particle,' said he.
'It will have to be attended to, however,' said Pitman.
'I thought you'd had enough of Waterloo,' returned the lawyer.
'Have you started a morbid craving? You've never been yourself
anyway since you lost that beard. I believe now it was where you
kept your senses.'
'Mr Finsbury,' said the drawing-master, 'I have tried to reason
this matter out, and, with your permission, I should like to lay
before you the results.'
'Fire away,' said Michael; 'but please, Pitman, remember it's
Sunday, and let's have no bad language.'
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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 Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: then you will escape being June-bugs."
"The fact is," said the captain, woefully, "we simply can't fight.
For our swords are only tin, and our axes are made of wood, with
silver-paper pasted over them."
"But why is that?" asked Wul-Takim, while all the party showed
their surprise.
"Why, until now we have never had any need to fight," said the
captain, "for every one has quickly surrendered to us or run away the
moment we came near. But you people do not appear to be properly
frightened, and now, alas! since you have drawn upon us the great
sorcerer's anger, we shall all be transformed into June-bugs."
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: [Music]
And twenty caged nightingales do sing:
Or wilt thou sleep? We'll have thee to a couch
Softer and sweeter than the lustful bed
On purpose trimm'd up for Semiramis.
Say thou wilt walk: we will bestrew the ground:
Or wilt thou ride? Thy horses shall be trapp'd,
Their harness studded all with gold and pearl.
Dost thou love hawking? Thou hast hawks will soar
Above the morning lark: or wilt thou hunt?
Thy hounds shall make the welkin answer them
The Taming of the Shrew |
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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: piety of Bunyan touches and ennobles, convinces, accuses the
reader. Through no art beside the art of words can the
kindness of a man's affections be expressed. In the cuts you
shall find faithfully parodied the quaintness and the power,
the triviality and the surprising freshness of the author's
fancy; there you shall find him out-stripped in ready
symbolism and the art of bringing things essentially
invisible before the eyes: but to feel the contact of
essential goodness, to be made in love with piety, the book
must be read and not the prints examined.
Farewell should not be taken with a grudge; nor can I dismiss
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