| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: be produced by the simple expedient of denying the existence of either
one of them, or at least of ignoring the existence of one steadily
during the study of the other. If they can be parted without injury to
each other, let them be parted; and till then let us suspend hard
judgments on the Alexandrian school of metaphysic, and also on the
schools of that curious people the Jews, who had at this period a
steadily increasing influence on the thought, as well as on the
commercial prosperity, of Alexandria.
You must not suppose, in the meanwhile, that the philosophers whom the
Ptolemies collected (as they would have any other marketable article) by
liberal offers of pay and patronage, were such men as the old Seven
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: Her faith, her oaths, her tears, and all were jestings.
She burn'd with love, as straw with fire flameth;
She burn'd out love, as soon as straw outburneth;
She framed the love, and yet she foil'd the framing;
She bade love last, and yet she fell a-turning.
Was this a lover, or a lecher whether?
Bad in the best, though excellent in neither.
VIII.
If music and sweet poetry agree,
As they must needs, the sister and the brother,
Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,
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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 Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: make out to give us the thing straight, Loudon. Anybody might
have--I mean it--I mean----"
"Never mind what you mean, my poor Jim," said I. "She's a
gallant little woman and a loyal wife: and I thought her
splendid. My story was as fishy as the devil. I'll never think
the less of either her or you."
"It'll blow over; it must blow over," said he.
"It never can," I returned, sighing: "and don't you try to make
it! Don't name me, unless it's with an oath. And get home to
her right away. Good by, my best of friends. Good by, and
God bless you. We shall never meet again."
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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 Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: apes--Korak and Akut. To her Korak was an ape--a Mangani, for
as such the three always described themselves. Man was an
enemy, so they did not think of themselves as belonging any
longer to the same genus. Tarmangani, or great white ape, which
described the white man in their language, did not fit them all.
Gomangani--great black ape, or Negro--described none of them so
they called themselves plain Mangani.
Meriem decided that she would feign slumber and play a joke
on Korak. So she lay very still with eyes tightly closed.
She heard the two approaching closer and closer. They were in
the adjoining tree now and must have discovered her, for they
The Son of Tarzan |
