| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: here and there, until it reached the kingdom whence no one used
to return--but now whoever wished might enter or pass out
unopposed. The news travelled in this kingdom until it came to a
seneschal of the faithless Meleagant may an evil fire burn
him! This seneschal had Lancelot in his keeping, for to him he
had been entrusted by his enemy Meleagant, who hated him with
deadly hate. Lancelot learned the hour and date of the
tournament, and as soon as he heard of it, his eyes were not
tearless nor was his heart glad. The lady of the house, seeing
Lancelot sad and pensive, thus spoke to him: "Sire, for God's
sake and for your own soul's good, tell me truly," the lady said,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Poems by Bronte Sisters: I--schooled from childhood in such lore--
Dared I draw back or hesitate,
When called to heal the sickness sore
Of those far off and desolate?
Dark, in the realm and shades of Death,
Nations, and tribes, and empires lie,
But even to them the light of Faith
Is breaking on their sombre sky:
And be it mine to bid them raise
Their drooped heads to the kindling scene,
And know and hail the sunrise blaze
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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 Othello by William Shakespeare: And many of the Consuls, rais'd and met,
Are at the Dukes already. You haue bin hotly call'd for,
When being not at your Lodging to be found,
The Senate hath sent about three seuerall Quests,
To search you out
Othel. 'Tis well I am found by you:
I will but spend a word here in the house,
And goe with you
Cassio. Aunciant, what makes he heere?
Iago. Faith, he to night hath boarded a Land Carract,
If it proue lawfull prize, he's made for euer
Othello |
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 Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: she, "Monsieur de Gondy."
"Whenever her majesty has need of me," replied the
coadjutor, bowing, "her majesty knows I am at her command."
"Ah, cursed priest!" cried Anne, when he had retired,
stretching out her arm to the scarcely closed door, "one day
I will make you drink the dregs of the atrocious gall you
have poured out on me to-day."
Mazarin wished to approach her. "Leave me!" she exclaimed;
"you are not a man!" and she went out of the room.
"It is you who are not a woman," muttered Mazarin.
Then, after a moment of reverie, he remembered where he had
Twenty Years After |
