| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: shook before them like a place incandescent; on the face of the
lagoon blinding copper suns, no bigger than sixpences, danced
and stabbed them in the eyeballs; there went up from sand and
sea, and even from the boat, a glare of scathing brightness; and
as they could only peer abroad from between closed lashes, the
excess of light seemed to be changed into a sinister darkness,
comparable to that of a thundercloud before it bursts.
The captain had come upon this errand for any one of a
dozen reasons, the last of which was desire for its success.
Superstition rules all men; semi-ignorant and gross natures, like
that of Davis, it rules utterly. For murder he had been prepared;
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: PSA 145:20 The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the
wicked will he destroy.
PSA 145:21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all
flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.
PSA 146:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.
PSA 146:2 While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto
my God while I have any being.
PSA 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom
there is no help.
PSA 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that
very day his thoughts perish.
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: himself, at a great distance from Rome, was in a trance at home, in
the chair where he commonly sat on his return from Mass. On recovering
consciousness, he saw all his attendants kneeling beside him,
believing him to be dead: "My friends," said he, "the Holy Father is
just dead." Two days later a letter confirmed the news. The hour of
the Pope's death coincided with that when the Bishop had been restored
to his natural state.
Nor had Lambert omitted the yet more recent adventure of an English
girl who was passionately attached to a sailor, and set out from
London to seek him. She found him, without a guide, making her way
alone in the North American wilderness, reaching him just in time to
Louis Lambert |
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 Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: "I've just helped Knowles build a Christmas-tree in yonder,--the
House of Refuge: you know. He could not tell an oak from an
arbor-vitae, I believe."
Knowles was in no mood for quizzing.
"There are other things I don't know," he said, gloomily,
recurring to some subject Holmes had interrupted. "The House is
going to the Devil, Charley, headlong."
"There's no use in saying no," said the other; "you'll call me a
lying diviner."
Knowles did not listen.
"Seems as if I am to go groping and stumbling through the world
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
