| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: Tossed in the wind, and the peaks quaked in the blaze of the day
And the cocoanuts showered on the ground, rebounding and rolling away:
A glorious morn for a feast, a famous wind for a fire.
To the hall of feasting Hiopa led them, mother and sire
And maid and babe in a tale, the whole of the holiday throng.
Smiling they came, garlanded green, not dreaming of wrong;
And for every three, a pig, tenderly cooked in the ground,
Waited, and fei, the staff of life, heaped in a mound
For each where he sat; - for each, bananas roasted and raw
Piled with a bountiful hand, as for horses hay and straw
Are stacked in a stable; and fish, the food of desire, (13)
Ballads |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: the noble coat of Robsart with that of such a miscreant!"
"If it be your object, as I cannot question," said the clergyman,
"to save, as much as is yet possible, the credit of this unhappy
young woman, I repeat, you should apply, in the first instance,
to the Earl of Leicester. He is as absolute in his household as
the Queen in her kingdom, and if he expresses to Varney that such
is his pleasure, her honour will not stand so publicly
committed."
"You are right, you are right!" said Tressilian eagerly, "and I
thank you for pointing out what I overlooked in my haste. I
little thought ever to have besought grace of Leicester; but I
Kenilworth |
| 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: morning in a damp, chill mist all hands were roused to work. With
a small delay, for one or two improvements I had seen to be
necessary last night, the engine started and since that time I do
not think there has been half an hour's stoppage. A rope to
splice, a block to change, a wheel to oil, an old rusted anchor to
disengage from the cable which brought it up, these have been our
only obstructions. Sixty, seventy, eighty, a hundred, a hundred
and twenty revolutions at last, my little engine tears away. The
even black rope comes straight out of the blue heaving water:
passes slowly round an open-hearted, good-tempered looking pulley,
five feet diameter; aft past a vicious nipper, to bring all up
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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 Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: I found there was a second skull, with a bullet-hole I could
have stuck my two thumbs in - say anybody else's one thumb.
My Samoans said it could not be, there were not enough bones;
I put the two pieces of skull together, and at last convinced
them. Whereupon, in a flash, they found the not unromantic
explanation. This poor brave had succeeded in the height of
a Samoan warriors ambition; he had taken a head, which he was
never destined to show to his applauding camp. Wounded
himself, he had crept here into the bush to die with his
useless trophy by his side. His date would be about fifteen
years ago, in the great battle between Laupepa and Talavou,
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