| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Poems by Bronte Sisters: She waited--as for some reply;
The still and cloudy night gave none;
Ere long, with deep-drawn, trembling sigh,
Her heavy plaint again begun.
"Unloved--I love; unwept--I weep;
Grief I restrain--hope I repress:
Vain is this anguish--fixed and deep;
Vainer, desires and dreams of bliss.
"My love awakes no love again,
My tears collect, and fall unfelt;
My sorrow touches none with pain,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: Poseidon. When night came, they put on azure robes and gave judgment
against offenders. The most important of their laws related to their
dealings with one another. They were not to take up arms against one
another, and were to come to the rescue if any of their brethren were
attacked. They were to deliberate in common about war, and the king was
not to have the power of life and death over his kinsmen, unless he had the
assent of the majority.
For many generations, as tradition tells, the people of Atlantis were
obedient to the laws and to the gods, and practised gentleness and wisdom
in their intercourse with one another. They knew that they could only have
the true use of riches by not caring about them. But gradually the divine
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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 Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: "Impious as all the Herods!"
"Less impious than thou!" Antipas retorted. "Was it not my father that
erected thy Temple?"
Then the Pharisees, children of the proscribed tribes, partisans of
Mattathias, accused the tetrarch of all the crimes committed by his
family.
The Pharisees had pointed skulls, bristling beards, feeble hands, snub
noses, great round eyes, and their countenances bore a resemblance to
that of a bull-dog. A dozen of these people, scribes and attendants
upon the priests, who picked up their living from the refuse of
holocausts, rushed to the foot of the pavilion and threatened Antipas
Herodias |
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 Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: York Custom-House. Perkins Brown is our butcher here in Waterbury,
and he often asks me--`Do you take chloride of soda on your
beefsteaks?' He is as fat as a prize ox, and the father of five
children."
"Enos!" exclaimed Mrs. Billings, looking at the clock, "it's nearly
midnight! Mr. Johnson must be very tired, after such a long story.
The Chapter of the A. C. is hereby closed!"
FRIEND ELI'S DAUGHTER.
I.
The mild May afternoon was drawing to a close, as Friend Eli Mitch-
enor reached the top of the long hill, and halted a few minutes, to
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