| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Beneath this archway, then wilt thou become
A thrall to his enchantments, for the King
Will bind thee by such vows, as is a shame
A man should not be bound by, yet the which
No man can keep; but, so thou dread to swear,
Pass not beneath this gateway, but abide
Without, among the cattle of the field.
For an ye heard a music, like enow
They are building still, seeing the city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built for ever.'
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: conversation.
It was true that a view over nearly the whole Russian position and
the greater part of the enemy's opened out from this battery. Just
facing it, on the crest of the opposite hill, the village of Schon
Grabern could be seen, and in three places to left and right the
French troops amid the smoke of their campfires, the greater part of
whom were evidently in the village itself and behind the hill. To
the left from that village, amid the smoke, was something resembling a
battery, but it was impossible to see it clearly with the naked eye.
Our right flank was posted on a rather steep incline which dominated
the French position. Our infantry were stationed there, and at the
War and Peace |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: fear the patrolling cruisers of the First Born too much to
venture from their own domains.
"The poor creatures of this outer valley are not molested
by us since they have nothing that we desire, nor are they
numerically strong enough to give us an interesting fight--so
we too leave them alone.
"There are several villages of them, but they have increased
in numbers but little in many years since they are always
warring among themselves."
Now we swung a little north of west, leaving the valley of
lost souls, and shortly I discerned over our starboard bow
The Gods of Mars |
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 My Antonia by Willa Cather: For Antonia and me, the story of the wedding party was
never at an end. We did not tell Pavel's secret to anyone,
but guarded it jealously--as if the wolves of the Ukraine
had gathered that night long ago, and the wedding party
been sacrificed, to give us a painful and peculiar pleasure.
At night, before I went to sleep, I often found myself in a sledge
drawn by three horses, dashing through a country that looked
something like Nebraska and something like Virginia.
IX
THE FIRST SNOWFALL came early in December. I remember how
the world looked from our sitting-room window as I dressed behind
My Antonia |
