| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Shines, beckoning the sailor.
She hears the city roar on high,
Thief, prostitute, and banker;
She sees the masted vessels lie
Immovably at anchor.
She sees the snowy islets dot
The sea's immortal azure,
And If, that castellated spot,
Tower, turret, and embrasure.
FLOWER GOD, GOD OF THE SPRING
FLOWER god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: because since his cadet days he had been passionately devoted to
Nicholas Pavlovich. The Emperor had often visited the Military
College and every time Kasatsky saw that tall erect figure, with
breast expanded in its military overcoat, entering with brisk
step, saw the cropped side-whiskers, the moustache, the aquiline
nose, and heard the sonorous voice exchanging greetings with the
cadets, he was seized by the same rapture that he experienced
later on when he met the woman he loved. Indeed, his passionate
adoration of the Emperor was even stronger: he wished to
sacrifice something--everything, even himself--to prove his
complete devotion. And the Emperor Nicholas was conscious of
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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 The Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: is congratulated, if congratulated she happens to be, she
says with a sigh and a funereal face, "Only a 'small happiness'--
but that isn't bad."
When a child is born it is considered one year old, and its years
are reckoned not from its birthdays but from its New Year's days.
If it has the good fortune to be born the day before two days old
it is reckoned two years old being one year old when born and two
years old on its first New Year's day.
The first great event in a child's life occurs when it is
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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 Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: come to other ill? You say you do this to win a girl for Dingaan and
to find favour in his sight. Has not Dingaan girls more than he can
count? It is more likely that, wearying of us, your wives, you go to
get girls for yourself, Bulalio; and as for finding favour, rest
quiet, so shall you find most favour. If the king sends his impis
against you, then it will be time to fight, O fool with little wit!"
Thus Zinita spoke to him, very roughly--for she always blurted out
what was in her mind, and Umslopogaas could not challenge her to
battle. So he must bear her talk as best he might, for it is often
thus, my father, that the greatest of men grow small enough in their
own huts. Moreover, he knew that it was because Zinita loved him that
Nada the Lily |
