| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: I know thee, Guy of Gisbourne, for who is there that hath not heard
of thee and cursed thee for thy vile deeds of blood and rapine?
Is it by such a hand as thine that the gentlest heart that ever
beat is stilled in death? Truly, thou art a fit tool for this
coward Sheriff of Nottingham. Now I die joyfully, nor do I care
how I die, for life is nought to me!" So spake Little John,
the salt tears rolling down his brown cheeks.
But the Sheriff of Nottingham clapped his hands for joy.
"Now, Guy of Gisbourne," cried he, "if what thou tellest me is true,
it will be the best day's doings for thee that ever thou hast
done in all thy life."
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: best time, that time when we were young at sea; young
and had nothing, on the sea that gives nothing, except
hard knocks--and sometimes a chance to feel your
strength--that only--what you all regret?"
And we all nodded at him: the man of finance, the man
of accounts, the man of law, we all nodded at him over
the polished table that like a still sheet of brown water
reflected our faces, lined, wrinkled; our faces marked
by toil, by deceptions, by success, by love; our weary
eyes looking still, looking always, looking anxiously for
something out of life, that while it is expected is already
Youth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: much longer; but he was quite domesticated and contented,
since he got his board for nothing, and thought that he was
well treated.
He occupied one window, and I the other; and I saw that
if one stayed there long, his principal business would be to
look out the window. I had soon read all the tracts that
were left there, and examined where former prisoners had
broken out, and where a grate had been sawed off, and heard
the history of the various occupants of that room; for I
found that even there there was a history and a gossip which
never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
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 Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: way out when he has been stupid. Just the same, it was ORDERED that
the money should come to us in this special way, and it was you that
must take it on yourself to go meddling with the designs of
Providence--and who gave you the right? It was wicked, that is what
it was--just blasphemous presumption, and no more becoming to a meek
and humble professor of--"
"But, Mary, you know how we have been trained all our lives long,
like the whole village, till it is absolutely second nature to us to
stop not a single moment to think when there's an honest thing to be
done--"
"Oh, I know it, I know it--it's been one everlasting training and
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
