| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: "Miss McIntyre," Penfield took up the handkerchief which the
foreman replaced on his desk a moment before, and holding it with
care extended it toward the girl. "Is this your handkerchief?"
She inspected the handkerchief and the initial with curiosity, but
with nothing more, Kent was convinced, and in his relief was
almost guilty of disturbing the decorum of the inquest with a shout
of joy.
"It is not my handkerchief," she stated clearly.
Penfield replaced the handkerchief on the table with the same care
he had picked it up, and turned again to her.
"Thank you, Miss McIntyre; I won't detain you longer. Logan," to
The Red Seal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: A Cradle Song
The Schoolboy
To Tirzah
The Voice of the Ancient Bard
SONGS OF INNOCENCE
INTRODUCTION
Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping songs of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:
'Pipe a song about a Lamb!'
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: ought and restore the kingdom to him; that was not his notion of happiness;
but not long afterwards he threw him into a well and drowned him, and
declared to his mother Cleopatra that he had fallen in while running after
a goose, and had been killed. And now as he is the greatest criminal of
all the Macedonians, he may be supposed to be the most miserable and not
the happiest of them, and I dare say that there are many Athenians, and you
would be at the head of them, who would rather be any other Macedonian than
Archelaus!
SOCRATES: I praised you at first, Polus, for being a rhetorician rather
than a reasoner. And this, as I suppose, is the sort of argument with
which you fancy that a child might refute me, and by which I stand refuted
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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 The Europeans by Henry James: Her forehead was very low--it was her only handsome feature;
and she had a great abundance of crisp dark hair, finely frizzled,
which was always braided in a manner that suggested some
Southern or Eastern, some remotely foreign, woman. She had
a large collection of ear-rings, and wore them in alternation;
and they seemed to give a point to her Oriental or exotic aspect.
A compliment had once been paid her, which, being repeated to her,
gave her greater pleasure than anything she had ever heard.
"A pretty woman?" some one had said. "Why, her features
are very bad." "I don't know about her features," a very
discerning observer had answered; "but she carries her head
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