| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: among the Tevas, and these to have excused themselves solely
on the danger of the enterprise. The broad distinction here
drawn between Nateva and Namunu-ura is therefore not
impossibly anachronistic.
Note 11, "HIOPA THE KING." Hiopa was really the name of the
king (chief) of Vaiau; but I could never learn that of the
king of Paea - pronounce to rhyme with the Indian AYAH - and
I gave the name where it was most needed. This note must
appear otiose indeed to readers who have never heard of
either of these two gentlemen; and perhaps there is only one
person in the world capable at once of reading my verses and
Ballads |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: objects resembling breast-plates hanging on a wall. He looked at them
with interest, and then demanded that the subterranean chambers of the
fortress be thrown open for his inspection. These chambers were cut
into the rocky foundation of the castle, and had been formed into
vaults, with pillars set at regular distances. The first vault opened
contained old armour; the second was full of pikes, with long points
emerging from tufts of feathers. The walls of the third chamber were
hung with a kind of tapestry made of slender reeds, laid in
perpendicular rows. Those of the fourth were covered with scimitars.
In the middle of the fifth cell, rows of helmets were seen, the crests
of which looked like a battalion of fiery serpents. The sixth cell
Herodias |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: taste they may have for peace, they must hold themselves in
readiness to repel aggression, or in other words they must have
an army.
Fortune, which has conferred so many peculiar benefits upon
the inhabitants of the United States, has placed them in the
midst of a wilderness, where they have, so to speak, no
neighbors: a few thousand soldiers are sufficient for their
wants; but this is peculiar to America, not to democracy. The
equality of conditions, and the manners as well as the
institutions resulting from it, do not exempt a democratic people
from the necessity of standing armies, and their armies always
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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 Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: guess; I am sure, at least, she dared not to appear openly in the
affair, for her papa was compromised in it pretty deep. It was he,
indeed, who had persuaded Catriona to leave, or rather, not to return,
to her cousin's, placing her instead with a family of Gregorys - decent
people, quite at the Advocate's disposition, and in whom she might have
the more confidence because they were of his own clan and family.
These kept her private till all was ripe, heated and helped her to
attempt her father's rescue, and after she was discharged from prison
received her again into the same secrecy. Thus Prestongrange obtained
and used his instrument; nor did there leak out the smallest word of
his acquaintance with the daughter of James More. There was some
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