| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: attending vessel in view to afford the least gleam of hope in
the event of any accident. It is true that they now had the
masonry of the lighthouse to resort to, which, no doubt,
lessened the actual danger of their situation; but the
building was still without a roof, and the deadlights, or
storm-shutters, not being yet fitted, the windows of the lower
story were stove in and broken, and at high-water the sea ran
in considerable quantities out at the entrance door.
[Thursday, 16th Aug.]
The gale continues with unabated violence to-day, and the
sprays rise to a still greater height, having been carried
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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 Odyssey by Homer: other races, such as the Finns, and the South-Sea
Islanders. The narrative of Odysseus's visit to the dead
(book xi) is one of the most moving passages in the whole
poem.
From Teiresias Odysseus learned that, if he would bring his
companions home, he must avoid injuring the sacred cattle
of the Sun, which pastured in the Isle of Thrinacia. If
these were harmed, he would arrive in Ithaca alone, or in
the words of the Cyclops's prayer, I in evil plight, with
loss of all his company, on board the ship of strangers, to
find sorrow in his house.' On returning to the Isle Aeaean,
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: on the ships at Genoa that when it came to weather, even
when you were a youngster, you were fair necromancer!''
The sky rested blue, but the sea became green oil. That
night there were all around us fields of phosphorescence.
About midnight these vanished; it was very black for all
the stars, and we seemed to hear a sighing as from a giant
leagues away. This passed, and the morning broke, silent
and tranquil, azure sky and azure sea, and not so sharply
clear as yesterday. The great calm wind again pushed us.
Hispaniola! Hispaniola! Her mountains and her palms
before us.
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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 Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: emptying upon the ground the contents of its bottom--
his few treasures. Among them was a flat bit of stone
and a shell which he had picked up from the beach near
his father's cabin.
With great care he rubbed the edge of the shell back and
forth upon the flat stone until the soft edge was quite
fine and sharp. He worked much as a barber does who hones
a razor, and with every evidence of similar practice; but his
proficiency was the result of years of painstaking effort.
Unaided he had worked out a method of his own for putting
an edge upon the shell--he even tested it with the ball
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan |
