| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: never could abide the sight o' him; onyway he was a great hand by
his way of it, and he up and rebukit the Master for some of his on-
goings. It was a grand thing for the Master o' Ball'ntrae to tak
up a feud wi' a' wabster, wasnae't?" Macconochie would sneer;
indeed, he never took the full name upon his lips but with a sort
of a whine of hatred. "But he did! A fine employ it was:
chapping at the man's door, and crying 'boo' in his lum, and
puttin' poother in his fire, and pee-oys (1) in his window; till
the man thocht it was auld Hornie was come seekin' him. Weel, to
mak a lang story short, Wully gaed gyte. At the hinder end, they
couldnae get him frae his knees, but he just roared and prayed and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: even from the place whence the wine is poured.'
So spake Antinous, and the saying pleased them well. Then
first stood up Leiodes, son of Oenops, who was their
soothsayer and ever sat by the fair mixing bowl at the
extremity of the hall; he alone hated their infatuate deeds
and was indignant with all the wooers. He now first took
the bow and the swift shaft, and he went and stood by the
threshold, and began to prove the bow; but he could not
bend it; or ever that might be, his hands grew weary with
the straining, his unworn, delicate hands; so he spake
among the wooers, saying:
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: hanc sibi populoque Romano gratiam referret ut in conloquium venire
invitatus gravaretur neque de communi re dicendum sibi et cognoscendum
putaret, haec esse quae ab eo postularet: primum ne quam multitudinem
hominum amplius trans Rhenum in Galliam traduceret; deinde obsides quos
haberet ab Haeduis redderet Sequanisque permitteret ut quos illi haberent
voluntate eius reddere illis liceret; neve Haeduos iniuria lacesseret neve
his sociisque eorum bellum inferret. Si [id] ita fecisset, sibi populoque
Romano perpetuam gratiam atque amicitiam cum eo futuram; si non
impetraret, sese, quoniam M. Messala, M. Pisone consulibus senatus
censuisset uti quicumque Galliam provinciam obtineret, quod commodo rei
publicae lacere posset, Haeduos ceterosque amicos populi Romani
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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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: This quarrel will drink blood another day.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE V. The Tower of London.
[Enter Mortimer, brought in a chair, and Jailers.]
MORTIMER.
Kind keepers of my weak decaying age,
Let dying Mortimer here rest himself.
Even like a man new haled from the rack,
So fare my limbs with long imprisonment;
And these gray locks, the pursuivants of death,
Nestor-like aged in an age of care,
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