| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: the altars upon their heads, assuring their credulous followers that
the Emperor's troops would immediately at the sight of those stones
fall into disorder and turn their backs; but, as they were some of
the first that fell, their death had a great influence upon the
people to undeceive them, and make them return to the truth. Many
were converted after the battle, and when they had embraced the
Catholic faith, adhered to that with the same constancy and firmness
with which they had before persisted in their errors.
The Emperor had sent a viceroy into this province, whose firm
attachment to the Roman Church, as well as great abilities in
military affairs, made him a person very capable of executing the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: end later in this land. Nor is the supremacy of Attica shown only in
those products which year after year flourish and grow old, but the
land contains treasures of a more perennial kind. Within its folds
lies imbedded by nature an unstinted store of marble, out of which are
chiselled[4] temples and altars of rarest beauty and the glittering
splendour of images sacred to the gods. This marble, moreover, is an
obejct of desire to many foreigners, Hellenes and barbarians alike.
Then there is land which, although it yields no fruit to the sower,
needs only to be quarried in order to feed many times more mouths than
it could as corn-land. Doubtless we owe it to a divine dispensation
that our land is veined with silver; if we consider how many
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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 Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: belong to things external; and within, like a black and
leaden-heavy kernel, he was conscious of the weight upon his
soul.
I care for nobody, no, not I,
And nobody cares for me,
he sang, and laughed at the appropriate burthen, so that the
passengers stared upon him on the street. And still the
warmth seemed to increase and to become more genial. What
was life? he considered, and what he, M'Guire? What even
Erin, our green Erin? All seemed so incalculably little that
he smiled as he looked down upon it. He would have given
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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 First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: indicate the very considerable difference observable in such Selenites of
the outer crust as I happened to encounter; the differences in size and
proportions were certainly as wide as the differences between the most
widely separated races of men. But such differences as I saw fade
absolutely to nothing in comparison with the huge distinctions of which
Cavor tells. It would seem the exterior Selenites I saw were, indeed,
mostly engaged in kindred occupations - mooncalf herds, butchers,
fleshers, and the like. But within the moon, practically unsuspected by
me, there are, it seems, a number of other sorts of Selenite, differing in
size, differing in the relative size of part to part, differing in power
and appearance, and yet not different species of creatures, but only
The First Men In The Moon |
