| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: bandage over my eyes."
Now a man--it was Maputa, the messenger--came out and did so, and I
noted that he tied it well and tight. Zikali whirled round upon his
heels, first one way and then another, and, crying aloud: "Guide me, my
Spirit!" marched forward in a zigzag fashion, as a blindfolded man does,
with his arms stretched out in front of him. First he went to the
right, then to the left, and then straight forward, till at length, to
my astonishment, he came exactly opposite the spot where Masapo sat and,
stretching out his great, groping hands, seized the kaross with which he
was covered and, with a jerk, tore it from him.
"Search this!" he cried, throwing it on the ground, and a woman
Child of Storm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx: and of property. It has agglomerated production, and has
concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence
of this was political centralisation. Independent, or but
loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws,
governments and systems of taxation, became lumped together into
one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national
class-interest, one frontier and one customs-tariff. The
bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has
created more massive and more colossal productive forces than
have all preceding generations together. Subjection of Nature's
forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry
The Communist Manifesto |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: behold, his fleecy flocks most fairly nurtured, then comes murrain,
and the end most foul destruction.[23]
[23] See Virg. "Georg." iii. 441 foll.: "Turpis oves tentat scabies,
ubi frigidus imber."
To which Socrates: Nay, I thought, Critobulus, you full surely were
aware that the operations of husbandry, no less than those of war, lie
in the hands of the gods. I am sure you will have noted the behaviour
of men engaged in war; how on the verge of military operations they
strive to win the acceptance of the divine powers;[24] how eagerly
they assail the ears of heaven, and by dint of sacrifices and omens
seek to discover what they should and what they should not do. So
|
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 Poems by Bronte Sisters: With thee, and then it stirs alert,
And pants to learn what menaced hurt
Demands for thee its care.
Remember, I have crossed the deep,
And stood with thee on deck, to gaze
On waves that rose in threatening heap,
While stagnant lay a heavy haze,
Dimly confusing sea with sky,
And baffling, even, the pilot's eye,
Intent to thread the maze--
Of rocks, on Bretagne's dangerous coast,
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