| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: On poles across their shoulders, the last reserve of fruit.
The victims bled for the nobles in the old appointed way;
The fruit was spread for the commons, for all should eat to-day.
And now was the kava brewed, and now the cocoa ran,
Now was the hour of the dance for child and woman and man;
And mirth was in every heart, and a garland on every head,
And all was well with the living and well with the eight who were dead.
Only the chiefs and the priest talked and consulted awhile:
"To-morrow," they said, and "To-morrow," and nodded and seemed to smile:
"Rua the child of dirt, the creature of common clay,
Rua must die to-morrow, since Rua is gone to-day."
Ballads |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: (whereby he seemed to be scorching them badly), he at last succeeded
in drawing out the biscuit; then blowing off the heat and ashes a
little, he made a polite offer of it to the little negro. But the
little devil did not seem to fancy such dry sort of fare at all; he
never moved his lips. All these strange antics were accompanied by
still stranger guttural noises from the devotee, who seemed to be
praying in a sing-song or else singing some pagan psalmody or other,
during which his face twitched about in the most unnatural manner.
At last extinguishing the fire, he took the idol up very
unceremoniously, and bagged it again in his grego pocket as
carelessly as if he were a sportsman bagging a dead woodcock.
Moby Dick |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: It is to a better understanding of those days that the author has labored to
draw from his ancestor's notes a new and striking portrayal of the frontier;
one which shall paint the fever of freedom, that powerful impulse which lured
so many to unmarked graves; one which shall show his work, his love, the
effect of the causes which rendered his life so hard, and surely one which
does not forget the wronged Indian.
The frontier in 1777 produced white men so savage as to be men in name only.
These outcasts and renegades lived among the savages, and during thirty years
harassed the border, perpetrating all manner of fiendish cruelties upon. the
settlers. They were no less cruel to the redmen whom they ruled, and at the
height of their bloody careers made futile the Moravian missionaries' long
The Spirit of the Border |
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 Symposium by Xenophon: [64] See Athen. "Deipnos." i. 28.
And here's a point worth noting. Wealth of my sort will make you
liberal of soul. Look at Socrates; from him it was I got these riches.
He did not supply me with it by weight or by measure, but just as much
as I could carry, he with bounteous hand consigned to me. And I, too,
grudge it to no man now. To all my friends without distinction I am
ready to display my opulence: come one, come all; and whosoever likes
to take a share is welcome to the wealth that lies within my soul.
Yes, and moreover, that most luxurious of possessions,[65] unbroken
leisure, you can see, is mine, which leaves me free to contemplate
things worthy of contemplation,[66] and to drink in with my ears all
The Symposium |
