| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: No Sonne of mine succeeding: if't be so,
For Banquo's Issue haue I fil'd my Minde,
For them, the gracious Duncan haue I murther'd,
Put Rancours in the Vessell of my Peace
Onely for them, and mine eternall Iewell
Giuen to the common Enemie of Man,
To make them Kings, the Seedes of Banquo Kings.
Rather then so, come Fate into the Lyst,
And champion me to th' vtterance.
Who's there?
Enter Seruant, and two Murtherers.
Macbeth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: open-sesame. After that you would stand or fall by your own ability. There's
Senator Longbridge, for instance, and Claus Inskeep the street-car magnate,
and Lane, and McChesney--" He paused, with voice suspended.
"I am sure I know none of them," she answered despondently.
"It's not necessary. Do you know any one that knows them? or any one that
knows any one else that knows them?"
Edna shook her head.
"Then we must think of something else," he went on, cheerfully. "You'll have
to do something yourself. Let me see."
He stopped and thought for a moment, with closed eyes and wrinkled forehead.
She was watching him, studying him intently, when his blue eyes opened with a
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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 Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: allegory,-- suggesting the moral significance of a social rise and fall:--
"Now, under the sun of spring, the winds are gentle, and flowers pinkly
bloom, and grasses are soft, and the hearts of people are glad. Butterflies
everywhere flutter joyously: so many persons now compose Chinese verses and
Japanese verses about butterflies.
"And this season, O Butterfly, is indeed the season of your bright
prosperity: so comely you now are that in the whole world there is nothing
more comely. For that reason all other insects admire and envy you;-- there
is not among them even one that does not envy you. Nor do insects alone
regard you with envy: men also both envy and admire you. Soshu of China, in
a dream, assumed your shape;-- Sakoku of Japan, after dying, took your
Kwaidan |
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 Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: that had sufficed to melt to water the hard-frozen purposes of this
self-willed man. The next instant, however, she was cold again with
dismay and newborn terror. He unclasped her arms, he drew back,
shaking off the hands she had rested upon his shoulders. His white
face - the flush had faded from it again - smiled a thought disdainfully.
"You bargain with me," he said. "But I have some knowledge of your ways
of trading. They are overshrewd for an honest gentleman."
"You mean," she gasped, her hand pressed to her heart, her face a
deathly white, "you mean that you'll not save him?"
"I mean," said he, "that I will have no further bargains with you."
There was such hard finality in his tone that she recoiled, beaten
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