| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: farm, inhabited, cultivated, the home of human
hopes and desires and labours, but now relapsed into solitude
and wilderness. What could the life have been among these
rugged and inhospitable Highlands, on this niggard and
reluctant soil? Where was the house that once sheltered the
tillers of this rude corner of the earth?
Here, perhaps, in the little clearing into which I now
emerged. A couple of decrepit apple-trees grew on the edge of
it, and dropped their scanty and gnarled fruit to feast the
squirrels. A little farther on, a straggling clump of ancient
lilacs, a bewildered old bush of sweetbrier, the dark-green
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Collection of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: Duchess looked very much
alarmed, and continued to scoop
the inside of the pie-dish.
"My Great-aunt Squintina
(grandmother of Cousin Tabitha
Twitchit)--died of a thimble in a
Christmas plum-pudding. _I_ never
put any article of metal in MY
puddings or pies."
Duchess looked aghast, and
tilted up the pie-dish.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: question them, to watch them at work, now this one, anon that,
according to the chances of the day. What I did not see very
plainly yesterday I can see the next day, under better conditions,
and on any of the following days, until the phenomenon under
observation is revealed in all clearness.
Let us go every evening, step by step, from one border of tall
rosemaries to the next. Should things move too slowly, we will sit
down at the foot of the shrubs, opposite the rope-yard, where the
light falls favourably, and watch with unwearying attention. Each
trip will be good for a fact that fills some gap in the ideas
already gathered. To appoint one's self, in this way, an inspector
The Life of the Spider |
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 Iliad by Homer: sadly and silently on the pyre, and having burned them went back
to their ships.
Now in the twilight when it was not yet dawn, chosen bands of the
Achaeans were gathered round the pyre and built one barrow that
was raised in common for all, and hard by this they built a high
wall to shelter themselves and their ships; they gave it strong
gates that there might be a way through them for their chariots,
and close outside it they dug a trench deep and wide, and they
planted it within with stakes.
Thus did the Achaeans toil, and the gods, seated by the side of
Jove the lord of lightning, marvelled at their great work; but
The Iliad |
