| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: Than a dozen sic' as thou!
"Nae use, nae use for sighs and tears:
Nae use at all to fret:
Sin' ye've bided sae well for thirty years,
Ye may bide a wee langer yet!"
Sadly, sadly he crossed the floor
And tirled at the pin:
Sadly went he through the door
Where sadly he cam' in.
"O gin I had a popinjay
To fly abune my head,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, in any interior locality,
shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident citizens
from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force
obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict
legal right may exist in the government to enforce the exercise of
these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating,
and so nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it better
to forego for the time the uses of such offices.
The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts
of the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that
sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought
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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 The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: 'But if thou yield, I rest thy secret friend:
The fault unknown is as a thought unacted;
A little harm, done to a great good end,
For lawful policy remains enacted.
The poisonous simple sometimes is compacted
In a pure compound; being so applied,
His venom in effect is purified.
'Then, for thy husband and thy children's sake,
Tender my suit: bequeath not to their lot
The shame that from them no device can take,
The blemish that will never be forgot;
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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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: that accursed ground, that Golgotha, that Place of Skulls, a shiver went
through me. It may have been caused by the atmosphere, moral and
actual, of the mount, or it may have been a prescience of a certain
dreadful scene which within a few months I was doomed to witness there.
Or perhaps the place itself and the knowledge of the trial before me
sent a sudden chill through my healthy blood. I cannot say which it
was, but the fact remains as I have stated, although a minute or two
later, when I saw what kind of sleepers lay upon that mount, it would
not have been necessary for me to seek any far-fetched explanation of my
fear.
Across this hill, winding in and out between the rough rocks that lay
Marie |
