| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: and had the pleasure to find him in a state of recovery. From
Dr. Stevenson's account, under whose charge he had been
placed, hopes were entertained that amputation would not be
necessary, as his patient still kept free of fever or any
appearance of mortification; and Wishart expressed a hope that
he might, at least, be ultimately capable of keeping the light
at the Bell Rock, as it was not now likely that he would
assist further in building the house.
[Saturday, 8th July]
It was remarked to-day, with no small demonstration of
joy, that the tide, being neap, did not, for the first time,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: early, to make trial of the Theban courage, whether they had any
mind to a second encounter, he commanded his soldiers to put on
garlands on their heads, and play with their flutes, and raise a
trophy before their faces; but when they, instead of fighting, sent
for leave to bury their dead, he gave it them; and having so
assured himself of the victory, after this he went to Delphi, to
the Pythian games, which were then celebrating, at which feast he
assisted, and there solemnly offered the tenth part of the spoils
he had brought from Asia, which amounted to a hundred talents.
Thence he returned to his own country, where his way and habits of
life quickly excited the affection and admiration of the Spartans;
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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 Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: history worth knowing than these newcomers, and unconsciously
regarded them as intruders. But they remained,
and established themselves; and the lonely person who hitherto
had been queen of the solitude did not at present seem likely
to return.
3 - The Custom of the Country
Had a looker-on been posted in the immediate vicinity
of the barrow, he would have learned that these persons
were boys and men of the neighbouring hamlets.
Each, as he ascended the barrow, had been heavily laden
with furze faggots, carried upon the shoulder by means
Return of the Native |
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 The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: material for a romantic superstructure. If some power had given
Hoopdriver the 'giftie' Burns invoked, 'to see oursels as ithers
see us,' he would probably have given it away to some one else at
the very earliest opportunity. His entire life, you must
understand, was not a continuous romance, but a series of short
stories linked only by the general resemblance of their hero, a
brown-haired young fellow commonly, with blue eyes and a fair
moustache, graceful rather than strong, sharp and resolute rather
than clever (cp., as the scientific books say, p. 2). Invariably
this person possessed an iron will. The stories fluctuated
indefinitely. The smoking of a cigarette converted Hoopdriver's
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