The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: kill or hunt off the herdsmen, and drive the beasts back across the
valley into the pass. A second fifty men, under the command of Saduko,
were to be left just at the end of this pass where it opened out into
the valley, in order to help and reinforce the cattle-lifters, or, if
need be, to check the following Amakoba while the great herds of beasts
were got away, and then fall back on the rest of us in our ambush nearly
two miles distant. The management of this ambush was to be my charge--a
heavy one indeed.
Now, the moon would not be up till midnight. But two hours before that
time we began our moves, since the cattle must be driven out of the
kraals as soon as she appeared and gave the needful light. Otherwise
Child of Storm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: And I can hear a man's voice, speaking, hushed, insistent,
At midnight, in mid-ocean, hour on hour to me.
Old Tunes
As the waves of perfume, heliotrope, rose,
Float in the garden when no wind blows,
Come to us, go from us, whence no one knows;
So the old tunes float in my mind,
And go from me leaving no trace behind,
Like fragrance borne on the hush of the wind.
But in the instant the airs remain
I know the laughter and the pain
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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 Symposium by Xenophon: foreign state?[87]
[83] See "Mem." II. vi. 13; III. vi. 2; IV. ii. 2.
[84] For the diction, {skepteon, skepteon, aphreteon, ereuneteon,
epistamenos, eidos, philosopheras}, Xenophon's rhetorical style
imitates the {orthoepeia} of Prodicus.
[85] See "Econ." xiv. 4.
[86] Or, "won for themselves at all hands the reputation of noblest
generalship." Cf. "Ages." i. 3; "Pol. Lac." xiv. 3.
[87] Reading as vulg. {proxenoi d' ei . . .} or if with Schenkl,
{proxenos d' ei . . .} transl. "You are their consul-general; at
your house their noblest citizens are lodged from time to time."
The Symposium |
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 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: one who was his own housekeeper, purveyor, confidant, and friend,
through possessing nobody else at all in the world to act in those
capacities for him. The remainder of the journey was down-hill,
and guessing him to be going to Alfredston they offered him a lift,
which he accepted.
Arabella looked at him, and looked again, till at length she spoke.
"If I don't mistake I am talking to Mr. Phillotson?"
The wayfarer faced round and regarded her in turn. "Yes; my name
is Phillotson," he said. "But I don't recognize you, ma'am."
"I remember you well enough when you used to be schoolmaster out at Marygreen,
and I one of your scholars. I used to walk up there from Cresscombe every
Jude the Obscure |