| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: I
Now from the fresh, the soft and tender bed
Of her still mother, gentle night out flew,
The fleeting balm on hills and dales she shed,
With honey drops of pure and precious dew,
And on the verdure of green forests spread
The virgin primrose and the violet blue,
And sweet-breathed Zephyr on his spreading wings,
Sleep, ease, repose, rest, peace and quiet brings.
II
The thoughts and troubles of broad-waking day,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: "I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow," said Scarlett. "It's rained
nearly every day for a week. There's nothing worse than a
barbecue turned into an indoor picnic."
"Oh, it'll be clear tomorrow and hot as June," said Stuart.
"Look at that sunset. I never saw one redder. You can always
tell weather by sunsets."
They looked out across the endless acres of Gerald O'Hara's newly
plowed cotton fields toward the red horizon. Now that the sun was
setting in a welter of crimson behind the hills across the Flint
River, the warmth of the April day was ebbing into a faint but
balmy chill.
Gone With the Wind |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: afraid there might be a scuffle. On arriving at the spot, however,
he found that the gypsies had gone, and it was evident that their
departure had been rather sudden, as the fire was still burning,
and some plates were lying on the grass. Having sent off
Washington and the two men to scour the district, he ran home, and
despatched telegrams to all the police inspectors in the county,
telling them to look out for a little girl who had been kidnapped
by tramps or gypsies. He then ordered his horse to be brought
round, and, after insisting on his wife and the three boys sitting
down to dinner, rode off down the Ascot Road with a groom. He had
hardly, however, gone a couple of miles when he heard somebody
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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 Finished by H. Rider Haggard: many others of the white people."
"Who was that doll, Zikali?"
"Nay, ask me not. Perhaps it was Nombe, perhaps another. I have
forgotten. I am very old and my memory begins to play me strange
tricks. Still I recollect that she was a good doll, so like a
dead woman called Mameena that I could scarcely have known them
apart. Ah! that was a great game I played in the Vale of Bones,
was it not, Macumazahn?"
"Yes, Zikali, yet I do not understand why it was played."
"Being so young you still have the impatience of youth,
Macumazahn, although your hair grows white. Wait a while and you
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