| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: the history of how ideas have arisen, how they have taken
possession of men's minds, how they have struggled, altered,
proliferated, decayed. There is nothing in this war at all but a
conflict of ideas, traditions, and mental habits. The German
Will clothed in conceptions of aggression and fortified by
cynical falsehood, struggles against the fundamental sanity of
the German mind and the confused protest of mankind. So that the
most permanently important thing in the tragic process of this
war is the change of opinion that is going on. What are people
making of it? Is it producing any great common understandings,
any fruitful unanimities?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: Baring-Gould, Book of Werewolves, p. 172.
[35] "The Polynesians imagine that the sky descends at the
horizon and encloses the earth. Hence they call foreigners
papalangi, or 'heaven-bursters,' as having broken in from
another world outside."--Max Muller, Chips, II. 268.
[36] "--And said the gods, let there be a hammered plate in the
midst of the waters, and let it be dividing between waters and
waters." Genesis i. 6.
[37] Genesis vii. 11.
[38] See Kelly, Indo-European Folk-Lore, p 120; who states
also that in Bengal the Garrows burn their dead in a small
Myths and Myth-Makers |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: "Because Saduko is here, and, of course, Nandie, for she never leaves
him, and he will not leave me; because the Prince Umbelazi is coming;
because there are plots afoot and the great war draws near--that war in
which so many must die."
"Between Cetewayo and Umbelazi, Mameena?"
"Aye, between Cetewayo and Umbelazi. Why do you suppose those wagons of
yours are loaded with guns for which so many cattle must be paid? Not
to shoot game with, I think. Well, this little kraal of my father's is
just now the headquarters of the Umbelazi faction, the Isigqosa, as the
princedom of Gikazi is that of Cetewayo. My poor father!" she added,
with her characteristic shrug, "he thinks himself very great to-day, as
Child of Storm |
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 New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: out through the door by which Denis had come in, turning upon the
threshold to address a last smiling bow to the young couple, and
followed by the chaplain with a hand-lamp.
No sooner were they alone than Blanche advanced towards Denis with
her hands extended. Her face was flushed and excited, and her eyes
shone with tears.
"You shall not die!" she cried, "you shall marry me after all."
"You seem to think, madam," replied Denis, "that I stand much in
fear of death."
"Oh no, no," she said, "I see you are no poltroon. It is for my
own sake - I could not bear to have you slain for such a scruple."
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