| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: ways; plunged their arms boldly in, and seemed not to feel the
shock. It would be dispiriting to me, this early beginning and
first cold dabble of a most dispiriting day's work. But I believe
they would have been as unwilling to change days with us as we
could be to change with them. They crowded to the door to watch us
paddle away into the thin sunny mists upon the river; and shouted
heartily after us till we were through the bridge.
CHANGED TIMES
THERE is a sense in which those mists never rose from off our
journey; and from that time forth they lie very densely in my note-
book. As long as the Oise was a small rural river, it took us near
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: moment they had seen Tarzan their blood had turned to water,
as the porters of the white men had told them would be the case.
Finding the ape-man made no attempt to harm him, the native
at last recovered his grasp upon his courage, and, at Tarzan's
suggestion, accompanied the white devil back to the village,
calling as he went for his fellows to return also, as "the
white devil has promised to do you no harm if you come back
right away and answer his questions."
One by one the blacks straggled into the village, but that
their fears were not entirely allayed was evident from the
amount of white that showed about the eyes of the majority
The Beasts of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: its gutta-percha coating, in the factory, in various stages of
manufacture; and he was the very first to introduce systematically
into practice the grand system of absolute measurement founded in
Germany by Gauss and Weber. The immense value of this step, if
only in respect to the electric telegraph, is amply appreciated by
all who remember or who have read something of the history of
submarine telegraphy; but it can scarcely be known generally how
much it is due to Jenkin.
Looking to the article 'Telegraph (Electric)' in the last volume of
the old edition of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' which was
published about the year 1861, we find on record that Jenkin's
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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 Enemies of Books by William Blades: in the origin and progress of any particular art, cared much,
and many sets of Patents were purchased by those engaged in research.
But the great bulk of the stock was, to some extent, inconvenient,
and so when a removal to other offices, in 1879, became necessary,
the question arose as to what could be done with them.
These blue-books, which had cost the nation many thousands
of pounds, were positively sold to the paper mills as wastepaper,
and nearly 100 tons weight were carted away at about L3 per ton.
It is difficult to believe, although positively true,
that so great an act of vandalism could have been perpetrated,
even in a Government office. It is true that no demand existed
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