| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Athwart the throng to Lancelot, caught his hand,
Held it, and there, half-hidden by him, stood,
Until the King espied him, saying to him,
"Hail, Bors! if ever loyal man and true
Could see it, thou hast seen the Grail;" and Bors,
"Ask me not, for I may not speak of it:
I saw it;" and the tears were in his eyes.
`Then there remained but Lancelot, for the rest
Spake but of sundry perils in the storm;
Perhaps, like him of Cana in Holy Writ,
Our Arthur kept his best until the last;
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: THEAETETUS: Yes, according to my present view.
SOCRATES: Is it still worth our while to resume the discussion touching
opinion?
THEAETETUS: To what are you alluding?
SOCRATES: There is a point which often troubles me, and is a great
perplexity to me, both in regard to myself and others. I cannot make out
the nature or origin of the mental experience to which I refer.
THEAETETUS: Pray what is it?
SOCRATES: How there can be false opinion--that difficulty still troubles
the eye of my mind; and I am uncertain whether I shall leave the question,
or begin over again in a new way.
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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 Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: risks of the winning. There must be a new departure, or
buccaneering would cease to exist.
Then arose one who showed the buccaneers a new way to squeeze
money out of the Spaniards. This man was an Englishman--Lewis
Scot.
The stoppage of commerce on the Spanish Main had naturally tended
to accumulate all the wealth gathered and produced into the chief
fortified cities and towns of the West Indies. As there no
longer existed prizes upon the sea, they must be gained upon the
land, if they were to be gained at all. Lewis Scot was the first
to appreciate this fact.
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
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 The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: "But really, you can't expect me to meditate on it all the time
or shut myself up here and mourn the circumstances from morning
to night. It would be morbid. Let us go on deck."
"And you look simply heathenish in this costume," Mr. Travers
went on as though he had not been interrupted, and with an accent
of deliberate disgust.
Her heart was heavy but everything he said seemed to force the
tone of levity on to her lips. "As long as I don't look like a
guy," she remarked, negligently, and then caught the direction of
his lurid stare which as a matter of fact was fastened on her
bare feet. She checked herself, "Oh, yes, if you prefer it I will
The Rescue |
