| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rig Veda: protection
as of Queens, our welfare,
Far-reaching, universal, holy, guard us. May we, car-borne,
through
song be victors ever.
5 To both of you, O Heaven and Earth, we bring our lofty song
of
praise,
Pure Ones! to glorify you both.
6 Ye sanctify each other's form, by your own proper might ye
rule,
The Rig Veda |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: The swains together.
And when the west is red
With the sunset embers,
The lover lingers and sings
And the maid remembers.
XV
IN the highlands, in the country places,
Where the old plain men have rosy faces,
And the young fair maidens
Quiet eyes;
Where essential silence cheers and blesses,
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: And the young Fisherman said to himself: 'How strange a thing this
is! The Priest telleth me that the soul is worth all the gold in
the world, and the merchants say that it is not worth a clipped
piece of silver.' And he passed out of the market-place, and went
down to the shore of the sea, and began to ponder on what he should
do.
And at noon he remembered how one of his companions, who was a
gatherer of samphire, had told him of a certain young Witch who
dwelt in a cave at the head of the bay and was very cunning in her
witcheries. And he set to and ran, so eager was he to get rid of
his soul, and a cloud of dust followed him as he sped round the
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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 Juana by Honore de Balzac: prettiest caresses; to him the toys, but to him, especially, the
penetrating mother-looks. Juana had watched him from his cradle; she
had studied his cries, his motions; she endeavored to discern his
nature that she might educate him wisely. It seemed at times as if she
had but that one child. Diard, seeing that the eldest, Juan, was in a
way neglected, took him under his own protection; and without
inquiring even of himself whether the boy was the fruit of that
ephemeral love to which he owed his wife, he made him his Benjamin.
Of all the sentiments transmitted to her through the blood of her
grandmothers which consumed her, Madame Diard accepted one alone,--
maternal love. But she loved her children doubly: first with the noble
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