| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: and love only, in my heart, and your name, and yours only, on my lips,
so that if anywhere we live again it shall be ready to spring forth to
greet you. Yet, husband, it is in my heart that you will not go with
me, but that you shall live on to die the greatest of deaths far away
from here, and because of another woman. It seems that, as I lay in
the dark of this cave, I saw you, Umslopogaas, a great man, gaunt and
grey, stricken to the death, and the axe Groan-maker wavering aloft,
and many a man dead upon a white and shimmering way, and about you the
fair faces of white women; and you had a hole in your forehead,
husband, on the left side."
"That is like to be true, if I live," he answered, "for the bone of my
Nada the Lily |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: "He looked, and said, 'Yes, you are right; I too have failed, and I forgive
my fellow. Go, I am satisfied; I have forgiven;' and he laid him down
peacefully and folded his hands on his breast, and I thought it was well
with him. But scarcely had my wings rustled and I turned to come up here,
when I heard one crying out on earth again, 'I cannot forgive! I cannot
forgive! Oh, God, God, I cannot forgive! It is better to die than to
hate! I cannot forgive! I cannot forgive!' And I went and stood outside
his door in the dark, and I heard him cry, 'I have not sinned so, not so!
If I have torn my fellows' flesh ever so little, I have kneeled down and
kissed the wound with my mouth till it was healed. I have not willed that
any soul shall be lost through hate of me. If they have but fancied that I
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: to tell on me, and I am getting nervous and wakeful myself.
Thank God, Lucy's health keeps up. Mr. Holmwood has been suddenly
called to Ring to see his father, who has been taken seriously ill.
Lucy frets at the postponement of seeing him, but it does not
touch her looks. She is a trifle stouter, and her cheeks are
a lovely rose-pink. She has lost the anemic look which she had.
I pray it will all last.
3 August.--Another week gone by, and no news from Jonathan,
not even to Mr. Hawkins, from whom I have heard. Oh, I do
hope he is not ill. He surely would have written. I look at
that last letter of his, but somehow it does not satisfy me.
Dracula |
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 Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: looking more narrowly, perceived that it was a place where the
tree had been scathed by lightning, and the white wood laid bare.
Suddenly he heard a groan--his teeth chattered, and his knees
smote against the saddle: it was but the rubbing of one huge
bough upon another, as they were swayed about by the breeze. He
passed the tree in safety, but new perils lay before him.
About two hundred yards from the tree, a small brook crossed
the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly-wooded glen, known by
the name of Wiley's Swamp. A few rough logs, laid side by side,
served for a bridge over this stream. On that side of the road
where the brook entered the wood, a group of oaks and chestnuts,
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
