| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rig Veda: at
will,
Brhaspati Most Excellent.
7 Divine, resplendent Pusan, this our newest hymn of eulogy,
By us is chanted forth to thee.
8 Accept with favour this my song, be gracious to the earnest
thought,
Even as a bridegroom to his bride.
9 May he who sees all living things, see, them together at
a glancc,-
May lie, may Pusan be our help.
The Rig Veda |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story,
Of the old time entombed.
VI.
And travellers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows, see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
The Fall of the House of Usher |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: from bloodshed and destruction. This only of all Cato's
speeches, it is said, was preserved; for Cicero, the consul, had
disposed, in various parts of the senate-house, several of the
most expert and rapid writers, whom he had taught to make figures
comprising numerous words in a few short strokes; as up to that
time they had not used those we call short-hand writers, who
then, as it is said, established the first example of the art.
Thus Cato carried it, and so turned the house again, that it was
decreed the conspirators should be put to death.
Not to omit any small matters that may serve to show Cato's
temper, and add something to the portraiture of his mind, it is
|
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 Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: That night Claus went to bed feeling very happy, for he had completed
no less than four pretty toys during the day, and they were sure, he
thought, to make four little children happy. But while he slept the
band of invisible Awgwas surrounded his bed, bound him with stout
cords, and then flew away with him to the middle of a dark forest in
far off Ethop, where they laid him down and left him.
When morning came Claus found himself thousands of miles from any
human being, a prisoner in the wild jungle of an unknown land.
From the limb of a tree above his head swayed a huge python, one of
those reptiles that are able to crush a man's bones in their coils. A
few yards away crouched a savage panther, its glaring red eyes fixed
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
