| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: seven," and so on, until the three figures disappeared in the
little hollow between the two sand hills on the opposite side of
the open, and still Tom could hear the sound of the counting
voice in the distance.
Just as they disappeared behind the hill there was a sudden faint
flash of light; and by and by, as Tom lay still listening to the
counting, he heard, after a long interval, a far-away muffled
rumble of distant thunder. He waited for a while, and then arose
and stepped to the top of the sand hummock behind which he had
been lying. He looked all about him, but there was no one else to
be seen. Then he stepped down from the hummock and followed in
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: of late thought more of it than formerly, when I began to think of
living and dying among them, I began to regret having professed
myself a Papist, and thought it might not be the best religion to
die with.
But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept me from
going to the Brazils, but that really I did not know with whom to
leave my effects behind me; so I resolved at last to go to England,
where, if I arrived, I concluded that I should make some
acquaintance, or find some relations, that would be faithful to me;
and, accordingly, I prepared to go to England with all my wealth.
In order to prepare things for my going home, I first (the Brazil
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: indifference in the matter of pleasures, in spite of his satiety of
the previous night, he found in the girl with the golden eyes that
seraglio which a loving woman knows how to create and which a man
never refuses. Paquita responded to that passion which is felt by all
really great men for the infinite--that mysterious passion so
dramatically expressed in Faust, so poetically translated in Manfred,
and which urged Don Juan to search the heart of women, in his hope to
find there that limitless thought in pursuit of which so many hunters
after spectres have started, which wise men think to discover in
science, and which mystics find in God alone. The hope of possessing
at last the ideal being with whom the struggle could be constant and
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: people, as I might easily have done; had I then settled myself
there, and sent the ship back laden with good rice, as I might also
have done in six months' time, and ordered my friends to have
fitted her out again for our supply - had I done this, and stayed
there myself, I had at least acted like a man of common sense. But
I was possessed of a wandering spirit, and scorned all advantages:
I pleased myself with being the patron of the people I placed
there, and doing for them in a kind of haughty, majestic way, like
an old patriarchal monarch, providing for them as if I had been
father of the whole family, as well as of the plantation. But I
never so much as pretended to plant in the name of any government
Robinson Crusoe |
