| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: that, as a town gentleman, you'd need have a candle and lantern to
find it if ye don't know where 'tis. Bedad! I wouldn't live there
if they'd pay me to. Now at Great Hintock you do see the world a
bit."
He mounted and sat beside her, with his feet outside, where they
were ever and anon brushed over by the horse's tail.
This van, driven and owned by Mrs. Dollery, was rather a movable
attachment of the roadway than an extraneous object, to those who
knew it well. The old horse, whose hair was of the roughness and
color of heather, whose leg-joints, shoulders, and hoofs were
distorted by harness and drudgery from colthood--though if all had
The Woodlanders |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: too. Do you people think you can hold that land, untaxed, for
speculative purposes until it goes up to thirty dollars and then
sell out to some one else--sell it over our heads? You and
Genslinger weren't in office when those contracts were drawn.
You ask your boss, you ask S. Behrman, he knows. The General
Office is pledged to sell to us in preference to any one else,
for two and a half."
"Well," observed Ruggles decidedly, tapping the end of his pencil
on his desk and leaning forward to emphasise his words, "we're
not selling NOW. That's said and signed, Mr. Annixter."
"Why not? Come, spit it out. What's the bunco game this time?"
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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 A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: There falls one more incident to be narrated, and then I can close
with this ungracious chapter. I have mentioned the name of the new
English consul. It is already familiar to English readers; for the
gentleman who was fated to undergo some strange experiences in Apia
was the same de Coetlogon who covered Hicks's flank at the time of
the disaster in the desert, and bade farewell to Gordon in Khartoum
before the investment. The colonel was abrupt and testy; Mrs. de
Coetlogon was too exclusive for society like that of Apia; but
whatever their superficial disabilities, it is strange they should
have left, in such an odour of unpopularity, a place where they set
so shining an example of the sterling virtues. The colonel was
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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 A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: omitted.
The dissertations are the only part in which an exact translation
has been attempted, and even in those abstracts are sometimes given
instead of literal quotations, particularly in the first; and
sometimes other parts have been contracted.
Several memorials and letters, which are printed at the end of the
dissertations to secure the credit of the foregoing narrative, are
entirely left out.
It is hoped that, after this confession, whoever shall compare this
attempt with the original, if he shall find no proofs of fraud or
partiality, will candidly overlook any failure of judgment.
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