| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: Only asked if he would take her
With her look of 'passive beauty.'
Her idea of passive beauty
Was a squinting of the left-eye,
Was a drooping of the right-eye,
Was a smile that went up sideways
To the corner of the nostrils.
Hiawatha, when she asked him,
Took no notice of the question,
Looked as if he hadn't heard it;
But, when pointedly appealed to,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Koran: Dost thou not see that we have sent the devils against the
misbelievers, to drive them on to sin? but, be not thou hasty with
them. Verily, we will number them a number (of days),-the day when
we will gather the pious to the Merciful as ambassadors, and we will
drive the sinners to hell like (herds) to water! They shall not
possess intercession, save he who has taken a compact with the
Merciful.
They say, 'The Merciful has taken to Himself a son:'-ye have brought
a monstrous thing! The heavens well-nigh burst asunder thereat, and
the earth is riven, and the mountains fall down broken, that they
attribute to the Merciful a son! but it becomes not the Merciful to
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: face capable of strong emotion, and, with training, it offered the
promise of delicate sentiment. It seemed pitiful to see so good a
model left to country admirers and a country way of thought.
Beauty should at least have touched society; then, in a moment, it
throws off a weight that lay upon it, it becomes conscious of
itself, it puts on an elegance, learns a gait and a carriage of the
head, and, in a moment, PATET DEA. Before I left I assured
Clarisse of my hearty admiration. She took it like milk, without
embarrassment or wonder, merely looking at me steadily with her
great eyes; and I own the result upon myself was some confusion.
If Clarisse could read English, I should not dare to add that her
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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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: 'Heart to heart,
Though far apart,'
I said glibly, and next instant I could have bitten out my tongue.
'Ah! you know that also, but doubtless you have carried the ring
for many months and learned the writing. Well, sir, though we were
far apart, and though perchance I cherished the memory of him who
wore this ring, and for his sake remained unwed, it seems that his
heart went a straying--to the breast indeed of some savage woman
whom he married, and who bore him children. That being so, my
answer to the prayer of your dead friend is that I forgive him
indeed, but I must needs take back the vows which I swore to him
Montezuma's Daughter |
