| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide-race roared;
But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard:
So's we saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high,
And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye.
The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;
The good red fires were burning bright in every 'longshore home;
The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;
And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.
The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;
For it's just that I should tell you how (of all days in the year)
This day of our adversity was blessed Christmas morn,
Ballads |
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 Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: up our minds to die like men; it only remains to send you from
hence under a safe escort."
"Great powers! and is there no remedy?" said the terrified
young woman.
"None, my child," answered Vere, gently, "unless one which you
would not advise your father to adopt--to be the first to betray
his friends."
"O, no! no!" she answered, abhorrently yet hastily, as if to
reject the temptation which the alternative presented to her.
"But is there no other hope--through flight--through mediation
--through supplication?--I will bend my knee to Sir Frederick!"
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