| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: meant that Lingard had made no move. Was Tom asleep or altogether
mad?
"The talk would be of peace," declared impressively the shadow
which had drifted much closer to the hulk now.
"It isn't for me to talk with great chiefs," Jorgenson returned,
cautiously.
"But Tengga is a friend," argued the nocturnal messenger. "And by
that fire there are other friends--your friends, the Rajah Hassim
and the lady Immada, who send you their greetings and who expect
their eyes to rest on you before sunrise."
"That's a lie," remarked Jorgenson, perfunctorily, and fell into
 The Rescue |
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 Walden by Henry David Thoreau: maniacal hooting for men. It is a sound admirably suited to swamps
and twilight woods which no day illustrates, suggesting a vast and
undeveloped nature which men have not recognized. They represent
the stark twilight and unsatisfied thoughts which all have. All day
the sun has shone on the surface of some savage swamp, where the
single spruce stands hung with usnea lichens, and small hawks
circulate above, and the chickadee lisps amid the evergreens, and
the partridge and rabbit skulk beneath; but now a more dismal and
fitting day dawns, and a different race of creatures awakes to
express the meaning of Nature there.
Late in the evening I heard the distant rumbling of wagons over
 Walden |