| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: Her height (forsooth) she hath preuail'd with him.
And are you growne so high in his esteeme,
Because I am so dwarfish, and so low?
How low am I, thou painted May-pole? Speake,
How low am I? I am not yet so low,
But that my nailes can reach vnto thine eyes
Hel. I pray you though you mocke me, gentlemen,
Let her not hurt me; I was neuer curst:
I haue no gift at all in shrewishnesse;
I am a right maide for my cowardize;
Let her not strike me: you perhaps may thinke,
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: land them if it should be necessary to protect the work. But
Becker looked on without interference, perhaps glad enough to have
the bridge repaired; for even Becker may not always have offended
intentionally. Such was now the distracted posture of the little
town: all government extinct, the German consul patrolling it with
armed men and issuing proclamations like a ruler, the two other
Powers defying his commands, and at least one of them prepared to
use force in the defiance. Close on its skirts sat the warriors of
Mataafa, perhaps four thousand strong, highly incensed against the
Germans, having all to gain in the seizure of the town and firm,
and, like an army in a fairy tale, restrained by the air-drawn
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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 Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: On the eve of the wedding he paid Ruth his last visit in the quality
of a lover, and was received by her in the garden. He found her
looking paler than her wont, and there was a cloud of sadness on her
brow, a haunting sadness in her eyes. It touched him to the soul,
and for a moment he wavered in his purpose. He stood beside her - she
seated on the old lichened seat - and a silence fell between them,
during which Mr. Wilding's conscience wrestled with his stronger
passion. It was his habit to be glib, talking incessantly what time
he was in her company, and seeing to it that his talk was shallow
and touched at nothing belonging to the deeps of human life. Thus
was it, perhaps, that this sudden and enduring silence affected her
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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 Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: And say, 'My restless Personality
Bids me return a negative to thee!'"
"Old scout," says he, "I've never really brought
My intellects to bear on that there though!
I gets no help, I asks no help from none --
But I have noticed, bo, that one by one,
And soon or late, and gradual, day by day,
Most things in life eventual comes my way!
Into the Ashes Can the whole world goes,
Old hats, old papers, toys and styles and clo'es,
Eventual they dump "em down the bay!"
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