| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: This plague must be repaid with grievous war,
This war must finish with Locrine's death;
His death will soon extinguish our complaints.
GWENDOLINE.
O no, his death will more augment my woes.
He was my husband, brave Thrasimachus,
More dear to me than the apple of mine eye,
Nor can I find in heart to work his scathe.
THRASIMACHUS.
Madame, if not your proper injuries,
Nor my exile, can move you to revenge,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: By the sides of the rainy sea,
Where never a stranger came,
On the awful lips of the dead,
He heard the outlandish name.
It sang in his sleeping ears,
It hummed in his waking head:
The name - Ticonderoga,
The utterance of the dead.
I. THE SAYING OF THE NAME
ON the loch-sides of Appin,
When the mist blew from the sea,
Ballads |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: 'He saved others; let Him save Himself if He
be Christ, the chosen of God.' And the soldiers
also mocked Him, coming to Him, and offering
Him vinegar, and saying, 'If Thou be the King of
the Jews save Thyself.' And a superscription
also was written over Him in letters of Greek,
and Latin, and Hebrew, 'This is the King of the
Jews.' And one of the malefactors which were
hanged railed on Him, saying, 'If thou be Christ,
save Thyself and us.' But the other answering
rebuked Him, saying, 'Dost not thou fear God,
The Forged Coupon |
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 Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: Christmas toys and Christmas odours, savoury ones that made the
nose wrinkle approvingly, issuing from the kitchen. Michel and
Madame Laurent smiled greetings across the street at each other,
and the salutation from a passer-by recalled the many-progenied
landlady to herself.
"Miss Sophie, well, po' soul, not ver' much Chris'mas for her.
Mais, I'll jus' call him in fo' to spen' the day with me. Eet'll
cheer her a bit."
It was so clean and orderly within the poor little room. Not a
speck of dust or a litter of any kind on the quaint little
old-time high bureau, unless you might except a sheet of paper
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
