| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: meeting his glance from beneath the gold, the red nose and sharp
eyes of his old friend of the mug, a thousand times redder and
sharper than ever he had seen them in his life.
"Come, Gluck, my boy," said the voice out of the pot again,
"I'm all right; pour me out."
But Gluck was too much astonished to do anything of the kind.
"Pour me out, I say," said the voice rather gruffly.
Still Gluck couldn't move.
"WILL you pour me out?" said the voice passionately. "I'm
too hot."
By a violent effort Gluck recovered the use of his limbs,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: eerie laughter.
Next morning I opened the packet which he had given me, after wondering
once or twice whether I should not thrust it down an ant-bear hole as it
was. But this, somehow, I could not find the heart to do, though now I
wish I had. Inside, cut from the black core of the umzimbiti wood, with
just a little of the white sap left on it to mark the eyes, teeth and
nails, was a likeness of Mameena. Of course, it was rudely executed,
but it was--or rather is, for I have it still--a wonderfully good
portrait of her, for whether Zikali was or was not a wizard, he was
certainly a good artist. There she stands, her body a little bent, her
arms outstretched, her head held forward with the lips parted, just as
Child of Storm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Pericles by William Shakespeare: Had princes sit, like stars, about his throne,
And he the sun, for them to reverence;
None that beheld him, but, like lesser lights,
Did vail their crowns to his supremacy:
Where now his son's like a glow-worm in the night,
The which hath fire in darkness, none in light:
Whereby I see that Time's the king of men,
He's both their parent, and he is their grave,
And gives them what he will, not what they crave.
SIMONIDES.
What, are you merry, knights?
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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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: at least feared the "scholar," who held, so the vulgar believed, the
keys of that magic lore by which the old necromancers had built
cities like Rome, and worked marvels of mechanical and chemical
skill, which the degenerate modern could never equal.
If the "scholar" stopped in a town, his hostess probably begged of
him a charm against toothache or rheumatism. The penniless knight
discoursed with him on alchemy, and the chances of retrieving his
fortune by the art of transmuting metals into gold. The queen or
bishop worried him in private about casting their nativities, and
finding their fates among the stars. But the statesman, who dealt
with more practical matters, hired him as an advocate and
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