| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: contemplation of the morning. He inhaled the air, tasting it
critically as a connoisseur tastes a vintage, and prolonging the
expiration with hygienic gusto. He counted the little flecks of
cloud along the sky. He followed the movements of the birds round
the church tower - making long sweeps, hanging poised, or turning
airy somersaults in fancy, and beating the wind with imaginary
pinions. And in this way he regained peace of mind and animal
composure, conscious of his limbs, conscious of the sight of his
eyes, conscious that the air had a cool taste, like a fruit, at the
top of his throat; and at last, in complete abstraction, he began
to sing. The Doctor had but one air - , 'Malbrouck s'en va-t-en
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Frances Waldeaux by Rebecca Davis: up to the water's edge.
"She has a dear old face," Bauzy's wife whispered.
"She is blind and deaf, I tell you," old Barbe grumbled,
peering up at her. "Make her pay, Oliver, before you
go."
Bauzy nodded, and when Frances was seated held out his
hand.
"Twenty francs," he said.
She opened her bag and gave them to him.
"She must be folle!" he said uneasily. "I feel like a
thief. Away with you, Babette!" as a pretty baby ran up
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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 Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Reader, may your immortal mind
To their sage lessons not be blind.
Poem: II
Reader, your soul upraise to see,
In yon fair cut designed by me,
The pauper by the highwayside
Vainly soliciting from pride.
Mark how the Beau with easy air
Contemns the anxious rustic's prayer,
And, casting a disdainful eye,
Goes gaily gallivanting by.
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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 The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: there wasn't a nook or a corner that some fibre had not worked its
way into; and when I gave the last wrench, each of them seemed to
shriek like a mandrake, as it broke its hold and came away.
There is nothing that happens, you know, which must not inevitably,
and which does not actually, photograph itself in every conceivable
aspect and in all dimensions. The infinite galleries of the Past
await but one brief process and all their pictures will be called
out and fixed forever. We had a curious illustration of the great
fact on a very humble scale. When a certain bookcase, long
standing in one place, for which it was built, was removed, there
was the exact image on the wall of the whole, and of many of its
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
