| 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: "About seven hundred who carry spears," they answered, "together with
others in outlying kraals. Moreover, watchmen are always set at the
gateways in the walls."
"And where are the cattle?" I asked again.
"Here, in the valley beneath, Macumazahn," answered the spokesman. "If
you listen you will hear them lowing. Fifty men, not less, watch them
at night--two thousand head of them, or more."
"Then it would not be difficult to get round these cattle and drive them
off, leaving Bangu to breed up a new herd?"
"It might not be difficult," interrupted Saduko, "but I came here to
kill Bangu, as well as to seize his cattle, since with him I have a
Child of Storm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The War in the Air by H. G. Wells: comfortable-looking cars, that were brightly lit after dusk. As
they flew by at night, transient flares of light and a rumbling
sound of passage, they kept up a perpetual summer lightning and
thunderstorm in the street below.
Presently the English Channel was bridged--a series of great iron
Eiffel Tower pillars carrying mono-rail cables at a height of a
hundred and fifty feet above the water, except near the middle,
where they rose higher to allow the passage of the London and
Antwerp shipping and the Hamburg-America liners.
Then heavy motor-cars began to run about on only a couple of
wheels, one behind the other, which for some reason upset Tom
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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 The Tanach: Proverbs 4: 4 And he taught me, and said unto me: 'Let thy heart hold fast my words, keep my commandments, and live;
Proverbs 4: 5 Get wisdom, get understanding; forget not, neither decline from the words of my mouth;
Proverbs 4: 6 Forsake her not, and she will preserve thee; love her, and she will keep thee.
Proverbs 4: 7 The beginning of wisdom is: Get wisdom; yea, with all thy getting get understanding.
Proverbs 4: 8 Extol her, and she will exalt thee; she will bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
Proverbs 4: 9 She will give to thy head a chaplet of grace; a crown of glory will she bestow on thee.'
Proverbs 4: 10 Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.
Proverbs 4: 11 I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in paths of uprightness.
Proverbs 4: 12 When thou goest, thy step shall not be straitened; and if thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
Proverbs 4: 13 Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go; keep her, for she is thy life.
Proverbs 4: 14 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and walk not in the way of evil men.
The Tanach |
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 Protagoras by Plato: strange beings; there are you, Socrates, who were saying that virtue cannot
be taught, contradicting yourself now by your attempt to prove that all
things are knowledge, including justice, and temperance, and courage,--
which tends to show that virtue can certainly be taught; for if virtue were
other than knowledge, as Protagoras attempted to prove, then clearly virtue
cannot be taught; but if virtue is entirely knowledge, as you are seeking
to show, then I cannot but suppose that virtue is capable of being taught.
Protagoras, on the other hand, who started by saying that it might be
taught, is now eager to prove it to be anything rather than knowledge; and
if this is true, it must be quite incapable of being taught.' Now I,
Protagoras, perceiving this terrible confusion of our ideas, have a great
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