| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: floated on her way, and left them far behind.
At length green hills were seen, and the waves gladly bore the little
Spirit on, till, rippling gently over soft white sand, they left her
on the pleasant shore.
"Ah, what a lovely place it is!" said Ripple, as she passed through
sunny valleys, where flowers began to bloom, and young leaves rustled
on the trees.
"Why are you all so gay, dear birds?" she asked, as their cheerful
voices sounded far and near; "is there a festival over the earth,
that all is so beautiful and bright?"
"Do you not know that Spring is coming? The warm winds whispered it
Flower Fables |
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 Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: discontented, a man who would not be discontented with such
surroundings and such a low mode of life would be a perfect brute.
Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's
original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been
made, through disobedience and through rebellion. Sometimes the
poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the
poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man
who is starving to eat less. For a town or country labourer to
practise thrift would be absolutely immoral. Man should not be
ready to show that he can live like a badly-fed animal. He should
decline to live like that, and should either steal or go on the
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