| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: something indestructible about him; and the way he
talked sometimes you might have thought he believed
it himself. When he called on me last with that letter
he wanted me to take charge of, he was not depressed at
all. Perhaps a shade more deliberate in his talk and
manner. Not depressed in the least. Had he a pre-
sentiment, I wonder? Perhaps! Still it seems a misera-
ble end for such a striking figure."
"Oh yes! It was a miserable end," Mr. Van Wyk said,
with so much fervor that the lawyer looked up at him
curiously; and afterwards, after parting with him, he
End of the Tether |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: some good spirit has changed the wicked Thistle into this good little
Elf. See how tenderly he lifts aside the leaves that overshadow pale
Harebell, and listen now how softly he sings as he rocks little
Eglantine to sleep. He has done many friendly things, though none
save Rose-Leaf has been kind to him, and he is very sad. Last night
when I awoke to draw my curtains closer, he sat weeping in the
moonlight, so bitterly, I longed to speak a kindly word to him.
Dear sisters, let us trust him."
And they all said little Mignonette was right; and, spreading wide
their leaves, they bade him come, and drink their dew, and lie among
the fragrant petals, striving to cheer his sorrow. Thistle told them
Flower Fables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: and, advancing with his troops to Fremona, blocked up the town. The
army had not been stationed there long before they committed all
sorts of disorders; so that one day a Portuguese, provoked beyond
his temper at the insolence of some of them, went out with his four
sons, and, wounding several of them, forced the rest back to their
camp.
We thought we had good reason to apprehend an attack; their troops
were increasing, our town was surrounded, and on the point of being
forced. Our Portuguese therefore thought that, without staying till
the last extremities, they might lawfully repel one violence by
another, and sallying out to the number of fifty, wounded about
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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 Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: a mirror or some sylvan spring, it was to seek and recognise
the features of my parents. But the fears which had long
pressed on others were now to be laid on my youth. I had
thrown myself, one sultry, cloudy afternoon, on a divan; the
windows stood open on the verandah, where my mother sat with
her embroidery; and when my father joined her from the
garden, their conversation, clearly audible to me, was of so
startling a nature that it held me enthralled where I lay.
'The blow has come,' my father said, after a long pause.
I could hear my mother start and turn, but in words she made
no reply.
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