| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: that from the island kilt to a pair of European trousers. Yet I am
far from persuaded that the one is any more hurtful than the other;
and the unaccustomed race will sometimes die of pin-pricks. We are
here face to face with one of the difficulties of the missionary.
In Polynesian islands he easily obtains pre-eminent authority; the
king becomes his MAIREDUPALAIS; he can proscribe, he can command;
and the temptation is ever towards too much. Thus (by all
accounts) the Catholics in Mangareva, and thus (to my own
knowledge) the Protestants in Hawaii, have rendered life in a more
or less degree unliveable to their converts. And the mild,
uncomplaining creatures (like children in a prison) yawn and await
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: consider of it rightly, are the ornaments of nature, as
palaces and fine approaches - ' And here he stumbled into a
patch of slough and nearly fell. The girl had hard work not
to laugh, but at heart she was lost in admiration for one who
talked so elegantly.
They had got to about a quarter of a mile from the 'Green
Dragon,' and were near the summit of the rise, when a sudden
rush of wheels arrested them. Turning and looking back, they
saw the post-house, now much declined in brightness; and
speeding away northward the two tremulous bright dots of my
Lord Windermoor's chaise-lamps. Mr. Archer followed these
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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 Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: filled his assailants with a terrible fear, and as much for this
reason as at the persuasion of the landlord they left off stoning him,
and he allowed them to carry off the wounded, and with the same
calmness and composure as before resumed the watch over his armour.
But these freaks of his guest were not much to the liking of the
landlord, so he determined to cut matters short and confer upon him at
once the unlucky order of knighthood before any further misadventure
could occur; so, going up to him, he apologised for the rudeness
which, without his knowledge, had been offered to him by these low
people, who, however, had been well punished for their audacity. As he
had already told him, he said, there was no chapel in the castle,
Don Quixote |
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 Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: working. He walks in his garden, going round fifty, or perhaps sixty
times; then he goes in, dines, and goes to bed between six and seven."
"How did you learn all that?" Madame de Chavoncourt asked Monsieur de
Soulas.
"In the first place, madame, I live in the Rue Neuve, at the corner of
the Rue du Perron; I look out on the house where this mysterious
personage lodges; then, of course, there are communications between my
tiger and Jerome."
"And you gossip with Babylas?"
"What would you have me do out riding?"
"Well--and how was it that you engaged a stranger for your defence?"
Albert Savarus |
