| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: The trap-door was lifted a foot or more. The landlord thrust up
his head.
'You called, did you not?' he said.
He held up a rushlight, which illumined half the room and lit up
his grinning face.
'Called--at this hour of the night, you fool?' I answered
angrily. 'No! I did not call. Go to bed, man!'
But he remained on the ladder, gaping stupidly. 'I heard you,'
he said.
'Go to bed! You are drunk,' I answered, sitting up. 'I tell you
I did not call.'
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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 Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: v. 36. Cassino.] A castle in the Terra di Lavoro.
v. 38. I it was.] "A new order of monks, which in a manner
absorbed all the others that were established in the west, was
instituted, A.D. 529, by Benedict of Nursis, a man of piety and
reputation for the age he lived in." Maclaine's Mosheim,
Eccles. Hist. v. ii. cent. vi. p. 2. ch. 2 - 6.
v. 48. Macarius.] There are two of this name enumerated by
Mosheim among the Greek theologians of the fourth century, v. i.
cent. iv p. 11 ch. 2 - 9. In the following chapter, 10, it is
said, "Macarius, an Egyptian monk, undoubtedly deserves the first
rank among the practical matters of this time, as his works
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: too. In Kolotovka he drove off the horses with-
out making sure whose they were. He did not
go himself to the spot, but sent a young and clever
fellow, Gerassim, to do the stealing for him. The
peasants only got to know of the theft at dawn;
they rushed in all directions to hunt for the rob-
bers. The horses, meanwhile, were hidden in a
ravine in the forest lands belonging to the state.
Ivan Mironov intended to leave them there till
the following night, and then to transport them
with the utmost haste a hundred miles away to a
The Forged Coupon |
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 Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: lighting up the night like factories, and a prosperous city
occupying the site of sleepy Calistoga; yet in the mean time,
around the foot of that mountain the silence of nature reigns
in a great measure unbroken, and the people of hill and
valley go sauntering about their business as in the days
before the flood.
To reach Mount Saint Helena from San Francisco, the traveller
has twice to cross the bay: once by the busy Oakland Ferry,
and again, after an hour or so of the railway, from Vallejo
junction to Vallejo. Thence he takes rail once more to mount
the long green strath of Napa Valley.
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