| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tanach: Ezra 10: 28 And of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai.
Ezra 10: 29 And of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, and Ramoth.
Ezra 10: 30 And of the sons of Pahath-moab: Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, and Binnui, and Manasseh.
Ezra 10: 31 And of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon;
Ezra 10: 32 Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah.
Ezra 10: 33 Of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei.
Ezra 10: 34 Of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, and Uel;
Ezra 10: 35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhu;
Ezra 10: 36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib;
Ezra 10: 37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasai;
Ezra 10: 38 and Bani, and Binnui, Shimei;
The Tanach |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: bit and pats the bride on the shoulder. And Parleyvoo Pickens, the
wrong reverend, writes out a marriage certificate, and farmer and
farmeress sign it as witnesses. And the parties of the first, second
and third part gets in their vehicles and rides away. Oh, that was an
idyllic graft! True love and the lowing kine and the sun shining on
the red barns--it certainly had all other impostures I know about beat
to a batter.
I suppose I happened along in time to marry Buck and Miss Malloy at
about twenty farm-houses. I hated to think how the romance was going
to fade later on when all them marriage certificates turned up in
banks where we'd discounted 'em, and the farmers had to pay them notes
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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 The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: A second sin more horrible again
Than was the one that bare it? O God, God,
Seal up sin's teeming womb, and make it barren,
I will not have more blood upon my hand
Than I have now.
GUIDO
[seizing her hand]
What! am I fallen so low
That I may not have leave to die for you?
DUCHESS
[tearing her hand away]
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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 Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: 1862, and afterward by the advice of Dr. Zakháryin, who
attended him. He took the kumiss-cure in 1871 and 1872, and at
last, in 1873, the whole family went there.
At that time my father had bought several hundred acres of
cheap Bashkir lands in the district of Buzulúk, and we
went to stay on our new property at a khutor, or farm.
In Samara we lived on the farm in a tumble-down wooden
house, and beside us, in the steppe, were erected two felt
kibitkas, or Tatar frame tents, in which [illustration
omitted] [page intentionally blank] our Bashkir, Muhammed
Shah Romanytch, lived with his wives.
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