| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: nationes sanctum inviolatumque semper fuisset, retentos ab se et in
vincula coniectos,] pro magnitudine periculi bellum parare et maxime ea
quae ad usum navium pertinent providere instituunt, boc maiore spe quod
multum natura loci confidebant. Pedestria esse itinera concisa
aestuariis, navigationem impeditam propter inscientiam locorum
paucitatemque portuum sciebant, neque nostros exercitus propter inopiam
frumenti diutius apud se morari posse confidebant; ac iam ut omnia contra
opinionem acciderent, tamen sc plurimum navibus posse, [quam] Romanos
neque ullam facultatem habere navium, neque eorum locorum ubi bellum
gesturi essent vada, portus, insulas novisse; ac longe aliam esse
navigationem in concluso mari atque in vastissimo atque apertissimo Oceano
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: petty travelers. The interest of the tale requires only this record of
the most startling contrast in the life of man: the dignity and
poverty which are conspicuous there in some of the men as they are in
most of the houses.
The nobles of Venice and of Geneva, like those of Poland in former
times, bore no titles. To be named Quirini, Doria, Brignole, Morosini,
Sauli, Mocenigo, Fieschi, Cornaro, or Spinola, was enough for the
pride of the haughtiest. But all things become corrupt. At the present
day some of these families have titles.
And even at a time when the nobles of the aristocratic republics were
all equal, the title of Prince was, in fact, given at Genoa to a
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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 Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: fell out with me, and we quarrelled so that they all left me.
But, though I knew it not at that time, your comrade was an
angel, and took the ring away with him, and now I am as happy as
I was sorrowful before."
By the next night the servant had come back to his home again.
Rap! tap! tap! He knocked at the door, and the wise man who had
been his master opened to him. "What do you want?" said he.
"I want to take service with you again," said the travelling
servant.
"Very well," said the wise man; "come in and shut the door."
And for all I know the travelling servant is there to this day.
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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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: hut, I, of course, not knowing that he was within. The substance of
this conversation was that I again urged Dingaan to kill the Boers and
afterwards to send an impi to massacre their wives and families. Only I
asked him to give me time to get away a girl whom I had married from
among them, and with her a few of my own friends whom I wished should be
spared, as I intended to become a kind of chief over them, and if he
would grant it me, to hold all the land of Natal under his rule and the
protection of the English. To these proposals Dingaan answered that
"they seemed wise and good, and that he would think them over very
carefully."
Pereira said further that coming out of the hut after Dingaan had gone
Marie |
