| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: cut off from the eastern part--the peninsula, or neck of land
between, being not above twelve miles over.
On this south side we came to Foy or Fowey, an ancient town, and
formerly very large--nay, not large only, but powerful and potent;
for the Foyens, as they were then called, were able to fit out
large fleets, not only for merchants' ships, but even of men-of-
war; and with these not only fought with, but several times
vanquished and routed, the squadron of the Cinque Ports men, who in
those days were thought very powerful.
Mr. Camden observes that the town of Foy quarters some part of the
arms of every one of those Cinque Ports with their own, intimating
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: by coming to the Meridian at midnight signalled the Sun's
new birth, the Virgin was seen just rising on the Eastern
sky--the horizon line passing through her centre. And
many people think that this astronomical fact is the explanation
of the very widespread legend of the Virgin-birth. I
do not think that it is the sole explanation--for indeed in
all or nearly all these cases the acceptance of a myth seems
to depend not upon a single argument but upon the convergence
of a number of meanings and reasons in the same
symbol. But certainly the fact mentioned above is curious,
and its importance is accentuated by the following
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
