| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: year after year, you will learn to know many of them personally,
and an attachment will grow up between you and them individually."
So writes that Doctor Amabilis of woodcraft, W. C. Prime, in his
book, Among the Northern Hills, and straightway launches forth into
eulogy on the white-birch. And truly it is an admirable, lovable,
and comfortable tree, beautiful to look upon and full of various
uses. Its wood is strong to make paddles and axe handles, and
glorious to burn, blazing up at first with a flashing flame, and
then holding the fire in its glowing heart all through the night.
Its bark is the most serviceable of all the products of the
wilderness. In Russia, they say, it is used in tanning, and gives
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from One Basket by Edna Ferber: stammered.
"Emma--I always wanted to tell you. God knows it was luck for
you the way it turned out--but I always wanted to----"
She took his hand again in her firm grip at that, and her kindly,
bright brown eyes were on him. "I never held it against you,
Ben. I had to live a long time to understand it. But I never
held a grudge. It just wasn't to be, I suppose. But listen to
me, Ben. You do as I tell you. You go back to your wheat and
your apples and your hogs. There isn't a bigger man-size job in
the world. It's where you belong."
Unconsciously his shoulders straightened again. Again they
One Basket |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from God The Invisible King by H. G. Wells: This transfiguration of the world into a theocracy may seem a merely
fantastic idea to anyone who comes to it freshly without such
general theological preparation as the preceding pages have made.
But to anyone who has been at the pains to clear his mind even a
little from the obsession of existing but transitory things, it
ceases to be a mere suggestion and becomes more and more manifestly
the real future of mankind. From the phase of "so things should
be," the mind will pass very rapidly to the realisation that "so
things will be." Towards this the directive wills among men have
been drifting more and more steadily and perceptibly and with fewer
eddyings and retardations, for many centuries. The purpose of
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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 Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us. . .that from these honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. . .
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . .
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. . .
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