| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: And though they be outstripp'd by every pen,
Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme,
Exceeded by the height of happier men.
O! then vouchsafe me but this loving thought:
'Had my friend's Muse grown with this growing age,
A dearer birth than this his love had brought,
To march in ranks of better equipage:
But since he died and poets better prove,
Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love'.
XXXIII
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: he done to you--that you should hunt him down? what have we done
to you that you should slay us? Oh! have mercy! Have mercy!
Let him go, and we will pray for you, I and my sister will pray
for you, every morning and night of our lives.'
I was in terror lest someone should come and see her lying there,
and I stooped and tried to raise her. But she only sank the
lower, until her tender little hands touched the rowels of my
spurs. I dared not move, At last I took a sudden resolution.
'Listen, then, Madame!' I said almost sternly, 'if you will not
rise. You forget everything, both how I stand, and how small my
power is! You forget that if I were to release your husband to-
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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 Exiles by Honore de Balzac: "The clock has struck, the boat is waiting; will you not come?"
At these words, spoken in bad French, but distinctly audible in the
silence, a little noise was heard in the other top room, and the young
man came down as lightly as a bird.
When Godefroid appeared, the lady's face turned crimson; she trembled,
started, and covered her face with her white hands.
Any woman might have shared her agitation at the sight of this youth
of about twenty, of a form and stature so slender that at a first
glance he might have been taken for a mere boy, or a young girl in
disguise. His black cap--like the /beret/ worn by the Basque people--
showed a brow as white as snow, where grace and innocence shone with
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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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: after the world," said a wise man, "for if thou stand still long
enough the world will come round to thee." And to Sanitary Reform
the world will come round at last. Grumbling, scoffing, cursing
its benefactors; boasting at last, as usual, that it discovered
for itself the very truths which it tried to silence, it will
come; and will be glad at last to accept the one sibylline leaf,
at the same price at which it might have had the whole. The
Sanitary Reformer must make up his mind to see no fruit of his
labours, much less thanks or reward. He must die in faith, as St.
Paul says all true men die, "not having received the promises;"
worn out, perhaps, by ill-paid and unappreciated labour, as that
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