| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: March 26th, 1890. Father died in his infancy, mother marrying again.
The stepfather was a drunken navvy, and used to knock the mother about,
and the lad was left to the streets. At 12 years of age he left home,
and tramped to Liverpool, begging his way, and sleeping on the
roadsides. In Liverpool he lived about the Docks for some days,
sleeping where he could. Police found him and returned him to
Birmingham; his reception being an unmerciful thrashing from the
drunken stepfather. He got several jobs as errand-boy, remarkable for
his secret pilferings, and two years later left with fifty shillings
stolen money, and reached Middlesbrough by road. Got work in a nail
factory stayed nine months, then stole nine shillings from
In Darkest England and The Way Out |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Poems of William Blake by William Blake: Till to her own grave plot she came, & there she sat down.
And heard this voice of sorrow breathed from the hollow pit.
Why cannot the Ear be closed to its own destruction?
Or the glistening Eye to the poison of a smile!
Why are Eyelids stord with arrows ready drawn,
Where a thousand fighting men in ambush lie!
Or an Eye of gifts & graces showring fruits & coined gold!
Why a Tongue impress'd with honey from every wind?
Why an Ear, a whirlpool fierce to draw creations in?
Why a Nostril wide inhaling terror trembling & affright
Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy?
Poems of William Blake |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: nature, not only trapped by its own standards, but also wrought upon
during many days by increasing exasperation and unhappiness while
helpless in the trap, and with no other outlook but the trap: the chill
import returned to me more than once, and was reasoned away, as, with no
attention to my surroundings, I took a pair of oars, and got into a boat
belonging to the lodge, and rowed myself slowly among the sluggish
windings of Tern Creek.
Whence come those thoughts that we ourselves feel shame at? It shamed me
now, as I pulled my boat along, that I should have thoughts of John which
needed banishing. What tale would this be to remember of a boy's life,
that he gave it to buy freedom from a pledge which need never have been
|
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 Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: he has but utilized the time in further blasphemy. What,
gentlemen, is your verdict?"
"Death to the blasphemer!" cried one, springing to his feet,
and in an instant the entire thirty-one judges were on their feet
with upraised swords in token of the unanimity of their verdict.
If the people did not hear Zat Arras' charge, they certainly
did hear the verdict of the tribunal. A sullen murmur
rose louder and louder about the packed coliseum, and then
Kantos Kan, who had not left the platform since first he had
taken his place near me, raised his hand for silence. When he
could be heard he spoke to the people in a cool and level voice.
The Gods of Mars |
