| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: "Who is she?"
"Oh, a woman I wanted more than anything in the world when I was
about your age."
"Then she isn't young?"
"She is better than young."
"Well," agreed the young man, "being young and pretty is not
everything."
"Pretty!" said Harry Lawton, scornfully, "pretty! She is a great
beauty."
"And not young?"
"She is a great beauty, and better than young, because time has
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: Querens me sedisti lassus
Redemisti crucem passus
Tantus laor non sit cassus.[1]
[1] These lines have been thus rather inadequately translated:
Think, O Jesus, for what reason
Thou endured'st earth's spite and treason,
Nor me lose, in that dread season;
Seeking me, thy wom feet hasted,
On the cross thy soul death tasted,
Let not all these toils be wasted.
[Mrs. Stowe's note.]
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: reign of William II., and Henry I., William of Malmesbury, calls
him VIR PECUNIOSUS; he might have called him VIR PECUNIOSISSIMUS,
considering the times he lived in, and the works of charity and
munificence which he has left as witnesses of his immense riches;
for he built the Cathedral Church, the Priory for sixty monks, the
Bishop's Palace, and the parish church of St. Leonard, all in
Norwich; this great church at Yarmouth, the Church of St. Margaret
at Lynn, and of St. Mary at Elmham. He removed the episcopal see
from Thetford to Norwich, and instituted the Cluniack Monks at
Thetford, and gave them or built them a house. This old church is
very large, and has a high spire, which is a useful sea-mark.
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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 Cavalry General by Xenophon: here contemplated.
Another serviceable expedient will be to discover on which side a
friendly force may suddenly appear and without risk to itself put a
drag on the wheels of the pursuer. Nay, it is self-evident, I think,
that, as far as work and speed are concerned, it is the small body
which will assert its superiority more rapidly over the larger, and
not vice versa--not of course that the mere fact of being a small body
will enable them to endure toil or give them wings; but simply it is
easier to find five men than five hundred, who will take the requisite
care and pains with their horses, and personally practise of their own
accord the art of horsemanship.
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