| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: parents. But this does not happen always. Most children can be, and
many are, hopelessly warped and wasted by parents who are ignorant and
silly enough to suppose that they know what a human being ought to be,
and who stick at nothing in their determination to force their
children into their moulds. Every child has a right to its own bent.
It has a right to be a Plymouth Brother though its parents be
convinced atheists. It has a right to dislike its mother or father or
sister or brother or uncle or aunt if they are antipathetic to it. It
has a right to find its own way and go its own way, whether that way
seems wise or foolish to others, exactly as an adult has. It has a
right to privacy as to its own doings and its own affairs as much as
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: "Help!" I cried, "one is slaying the King!"
As I spoke the reed fence burst asunder, and through it plunged the
princes Umhlangana and Dingaan, as bulls plunge through a brake.
Then I pointed to Chaka with my withered hand, saying, "Behold your
king!"
Now, from beneath the shelter of his kaross, each Prince drew out a
short stabbing spear, and plunged it into the body of Chaka the king.
Umhlangana smote him on the left shoulder, Dingaan struck him in the
right side. Chaka dropped the little spear handled with the red wood
and looked round, and so royally that the princes, his brothers, grew
afraid and shrank away from him.
Nada the Lily |
