| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: where there were no continents, I should share your uneasiness.
But we know now that Captain Nemo does not fly from civilised seas,
and in some days I think you can act with security."
Ned Land still looked at me fixedly; at length his fixed lips parted,
and he said, "It is for to-night."
I drew myself up suddenly. I was, I admit, little prepared
for this communication. I wanted to answer the Canadian,
but words would not come.
"We agreed to wait for an opportunity," continued Ned Land,
"and the opportunity has arrived. This night we shall
be but a few miles from the Spanish coast. It is cloudy.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: PHAEDRUS: He is close at hand, and always at your service.
SOCRATES: Know then, fair youth, that the former discourse was the word of
Phaedrus, the son of Vain Man, who dwells in the city of Myrrhina
(Myrrhinusius). And this which I am about to utter is the recantation of
Stesichorus the son of Godly Man (Euphemus), who comes from the town of
Desire (Himera), and is to the following effect: 'I told a lie when I
said' that the beloved ought to accept the non-lover when he might have the
lover, because the one is sane, and the other mad. It might be so if
madness were simply an evil; but there is also a madness which is a divine
gift, and the source of the chiefest blessings granted to men. For
prophecy is a madness, and the prophetess at Delphi and the priestesses at
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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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: to throw off the winding-sheet, and crawl round the room, with
white bleached bones and one rolling eye-ball, in the character of
'Dumb Daniel, or the Suicide's Skeleton,' a ROLE in which he had on
more than one occasion produced a great effect, and which he
considered quite equal to his famous part of 'Martin the Maniac, or
the Masked Mystery.'
At half-past ten he heard the family going to bed. For some time
he was disturbed by wild shrieks of laughter from the twins, who,
with the light-hearted gaiety of schoolboys, were evidently amusing
themselves before they retired to rest, but at a quarter past
eleven all was still, and, as midnight sounded, he sallied forth.
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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 Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: poverty-stricken, pest-ridden souls crowded into that fever hole
of a town.
Then they left, but before they went they demanded still more
money--ten thousand pieces of eight--as a ransom for the town,
which otherwise should be given to the flames. There was some
hesitation on the part of the Spaniards, some disposition to
haggle, but there was no hesitation on the part of l'Olonoise.
The torch WAS set to the town as he had promised, whereupon the
money was promptly paid, and the pirates were piteously begged to
help quench the spreading flames. This they were pleased to do,
but in spite of all their efforts nearly half of the town was
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
