| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: away it was, that I had first evoked the faces and the mutual
tragic situation of the men of Durrisdeer.
My story was now world-wide enough: Scotland, India, and
America being all obligatory scenes. But of these India was
strange to me except in books; I had never known any living
Indian save a Parsee, a member of my club in London, equally
civilised, and (to all seeing) equally accidental with
myself. It was plain, thus far, that I should have to get
into India and out of it again upon a foot of fairy
lightness; and I believe this first suggested to me the idea
of the Chevalier Burke for a narrator. It was at first
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: their art, were the only circumstances in the whole affair that you
could fancy would so much as raise a smile. But the villagers of
Precy seemed delighted. Indeed, so long as a thing is an
exhibition, and you pay to see it, it is nearly certain to amuse.
If we were charged so much a head for sunsets, or if God sent round
a drum before the hawthorns came in flower, what a work should we
not make about their beauty! But these things, like good
companions, stupid people early cease to observe: and the Abstract
Bagman tittups past in his spring gig, and is positively not aware
of the flowers along the lane, or the scenery of the weather
overhead.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Koran: prosecuted in reason, and made to pay with kindness.
That is an alleviation from your Lord, and a mercy; and he who
transgresses after that for him is grievous woe.
For you in retaliation is there life, O ye possessors of minds! it
may be ye will fear.
It is prescribed for you that when one of you is face to face with
death, if he leave (any) goods, the legacy is to his parents, and to
his kinsmen, in reason. A duty this upon all those that fear.
But he who alters it after that he has heard it, the sin thereof
is only upon those who alter it; verily, God doth hear and know.
And he who fears from the testator a wrong intention, or a crime,
The Koran |
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 Iliad by Homer: Trojans were now driven back with a shout that rent the skies,
while the Danaans poured after them from their ships, shouting
also without ceasing. As when Jove, gatherer of the
thunder-cloud, spreads a dense canopy on the top of some lofty
mountain, and all the peaks, the jutting headlands, and forest
glades show out in the great light that flashes from the bursting
heavens, even so when the Danaans had now driven back the fire
from their ships, they took breath for a little while; but the
fury of the fight was not yet over, for the Trojans were not
driven back in utter rout, but still gave battle, and were ousted
from their ground only by sheer fighting.
The Iliad |
