| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: together with her fits of violence, had contributed not a little
to the reputation for witchcraft she enjoyed in the settlement.
"I was a slave, and you shall be a queen," went on Mrs. Almayer,
looking straight before her; "but remember men's strength and
their weakness. Tremble before his anger, so that he may see
your fear in the light of day; but in your heart you may laugh,
for after sunset he is your slave."
"A slave! He! The master of life! You do not know him,
mother."
Mrs. Almayer condescended to laugh contemptuously.
"You speak like a fool of a white woman," she exclaimed. "What
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: did not hope the hunter would return with information of Indians. The man
never talked about the savages, and if he spoke at all it was to tell of some
incident of his day's travel. One evening he came back with a large black fox
that he had killed.
"What beautiful, glossy fur!" said Joe. "I never saw a black fox before."
"I've been layin' fer this fellar some time," replied Wetzel, as he began his
first evening task, that of combing his hair. "Jest back here in a clump of
cottonwoods there's a holler log full of leaves. Happenin' to see a blacksnake
sneakin' round, I thought mebbe he was up to somethin', so I investigated, an'
found a nest full of young rabbits. I killed the snake, an' arter that took an
interest in 'em. Every time I passed I'd look in at the bunnies, an' each time
The Spirit of the Border |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: the secret cellar laboratory a corpse whose decay could not by
any possibility have begun. What would happen on reanimation,
and whether we could hope for a revival of mind and reason, West
did not venture to predict. The experiment would be a landmark
in our studies, and he had saved the new body for my return, so
that both might share the spectacle in accustomed fashion.
West
told me how he had obtained the specimen. It had been a vigorous
man; a well-dressed stranger just off the train on his way to
transact some business with the Bolton Worsted Mills. The walk
through the town had been long, and by the time the traveller
Herbert West: Reanimator |
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 Alcibiades I by Plato: making Alcibiades about twenty years old during the life of his uncle,
Pericles, may be noted; and the repetition of the favourite observation,
which occurs also in the Laches and Protagoras, that great Athenian
statesmen, like Pericles, failed in the education of their sons. There is
none of the undoubted dialogues of Plato in which there is so little
dramatic verisimilitude.
ALCIBIADES I
by
Plato (see Appendix I above)
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Alcibiades, Socrates.
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