| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: For measured spaces where the shrines are lit,
And men with wisdom or with little wit
Implore the gods that mercy may abound.
Ah, Aphrodite, was it not from thee
My summons came across the endless spaces?
Mother of Love, turn not thy face from me
Now that I seek for thee in human faces;
Answer my prayer or set my spirit free
Again to drift along the starry places.
Galahad in the Castle of the Maidens
(To the maiden with the hidden face in Abbey's painting)
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: interposed. She could never trust Ann Eliza to remember these
opening ceremonies.
"Thank you, ma'am," he replied, and taking his thread-bare
over-coat and shabby hat she laid them on a chair with the gesture
she imagined the lady with the puffed sleeves might make use of on
similar occasions. Ann Eliza's social sense was roused, and she
felt that the next act of hospitality must be hers. "Won't you
suit yourself to a seat?" she suggested. "My sister will reach
down the clock; but I'm sure she's all right again. She's went
beautiful ever since you fixed her."
"Dat's good," said Mr. Ramy. His lips parted in a smile which
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from King James Bible: consented not;
ACT 18:21 But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this
feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God
will. And he sailed from Ephesus.
ACT 18:22 And when he had landed at Caesarea, and gone up, and saluted
the church, he went down to Antioch.
ACT 18:23 And after he had spent some time there, he departed, and went
over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all
the disciples.
ACT 18:24 And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an
eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.
King James Bible |
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 Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: punish. These duties cling, not upon humanity, but upon the
man himself. It is he, not another, who is one woman's son
and a second woman's husband and a third woman's father. That
life which began so small, has now grown, with a myriad
filaments, into the lives of others. It is not indispensable;
another will take the place and shoulder the discharged
responsibility; but the better the man and the nobler his
purposes, the more will he be tempted to regret the extinction
of his powers and the deletion of his personality. To have
lived a generation, is not only to have grown at home in that
perplexing medium, but to have assumed innumerable duties. To
|
