| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare: To whose sound chaste wings obey.
But thou, shrieking harbinger,
Foul pre-currer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near.
From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.
Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
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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 Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: The great linden wood shields of the men were cov-
ered with gray leather and in the upper right hand
corner of each was the black falcon's wing. The sur-
coats of the riders were also uniform, being of dark
gray villosa faced with black wolf skin, so that notwith-
standing the richness of the armor and the horse trap-
pings there was a grim, gray warlike appearance to
these wild companies that comported well with their
reputation.
Recruited from all ranks of society and from every
civilized country of Europe the great horde of Torn
The Outlaw of Torn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: considerateness, the ant-hill trumpery, the pitiable comfortableness, the
"happiness of the greatest number"--!
And rather despair than submit yourselves. And verily, I love you, because
ye know not to-day how to live, ye higher men! For thus do YE live--best!
4.
Have ye courage, O my brethren? Are ye stout-hearted? NOT the courage
before witnesses, but anchorite and eagle courage, which not even a God any
longer beholdeth?
Cold souls, mules, the blind and the drunken, I do not call stout-hearted.
He hath heart who knoweth fear, but VANQUISHETH it; who seeth the abyss,
but with PRIDE.
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
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 Roads of Destiny by O. Henry: this specimen of municipal official splendour. He gazed with unbiased
dignity at the faintly glowing colours until, at last, he turned to
them his broad back, as if convinced that legal interference was not
needed, and the sunrise might proceed unchecked. So he turned his face
to the rice bags, and, drawing a flat flask from an inside pocket, he
placed it to his lips and regarded the firmament.
Whistling Dick, professional tramp, possessed a half-friendly
acquaintance with this officer. They had met several times before on
the levee at night, for the officer, himself a lover of music, had
been attracted by the exquisite whistling of the shiftless vagabond.
Still, he did not care, under the present circumstances, to renew the
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