| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex,
followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and
importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of
being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to
employ all their time in stroling to beg sustenance for their
helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for
want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for
the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number
of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of
their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: stirred not till Marcellus came near; and then all starting up in an
instant, and encompassing him from all sides, attacked him with darts,
struck about and wounded the backs of those that fled, and pressed upon
those who resisted. These were the forty Fregellans. For though the
Etruscans fled in the very beginning of the fight, the Fregellans formed
themselves into a ring, bravely defending the consuls, till Crispinus,
struck with two darts, turned his horse to fly away; and Marcellus's side
was run through with a lance with a broad head. Then the Fregellans,
also, the few that remained alive, leaving the fallen consul, and
rescuing young Marcellus, who also was wounded, got into the camp by
flight. There were slain not much above forty; five lictors and eighteen
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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 The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: "A poem that must endure; if things that deserve long life get it."
-- ~N. Y. Evening Sun~.
"Wherever you hear people who know speak of American poets . . .
they assume that you take the genius and place of Edwin Arlington Robinson
as granted. . . . A man with something to say that has value and beauty.
His thought is deep and his ideas are high and stimulating."
-- ~Boston Transcript~.
By the same author
--------------
The Porcupine: A Drama in Three Acts
~Cloth, 12mo, $1.25~
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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 Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: our Protestant Bibles Peter is called Saint.
Damien was DIRTY.
He was. Think of the poor lepers annoyed with this dirty comrade!
But the clean Dr. Hyde was at his food in a fine house.
Damien was HEADSTRONG.
I believe you are right again; and I thank God for his strong head
and heart.
Damien was BIGOTED.
I am not fond of bigots myself, because they are not fond of me.
But what is meant by bigotry, that we should regard it as a blemish
in a priest? Damien believed his own religion with the simplicity
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