| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Love Songs by Sara Teasdale: *But what if I heard my first love calling me once more?*
Dew
As dew leaves the cobweb lightly
Threaded with stars,
Scattering jewels on the fence
And the pasture bars;
As dawn leaves the dry grass bright
And the tangled weeds
Bearing a rainbow gem
On each of their seeds;
So has your love, my lover,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: and rest after some undue fatigue. It crossed his mind
that drunken men probably felt like that as they leaned
against things on their way home. He was affected himself,
he saw, by the weariness and half-nausea following
a mental intoxication. The conceit pleased him,
and he smiled to himself as he turned and took the first
homeward steps. It must be growing late, he thought.
Alice would be wondering as she waited.
There was a street lamp at the corner, and as he walked
toward it he noted all at once that his feet were keeping
step to the movement of the music proceeding from the
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: Lily had sent them tidings by the servant man John, that one was
with her whom she believed they would be glad to see, and they had
hurried hither, not knowing whom they should find. Nor were they
much the wiser at first, for I was much changed and the light in
the room shone dim, but stood perplexed, wondering who this
stranger might be.
'Mary,' I said at length, 'Mary, do you not remember me, my
sister?'
Then she cried aloud, and throwing herself into my arms, she wept
there a while, as would any of us were our beloved dead suddenly to
appear before our eyes, alive and well, and her husband clasped me
Montezuma's Daughter |
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 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: For this last reason, I especially recommend to the young the Rev.
C. A. Johns's "Week at the Lizard," as teaching a young person how
much there is to be seen and known within a few square miles of
these British Isles. But, indeed, all Mr. Johns's books are good
(as they are bound to be, considering his most accurate and varied
knowledge), especially his "Flowers of the Field," the best cheap
introduction to systematic botany which has yet appeared. Trained,
and all but self-trained, like Mr. Hugh Miller, in a remote and
narrow field of observation, Mr. Johns has developed himself into
one of our most acute and persevering botanists, and has added many
a new treasure to the Flora of these isles; and one person, at
|
