| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: 'Starve you to death? Oh, Mr. Ghost, I mean Sir Simon, are you
hungry? I have a sandwich in my case. Would you like it?'
'No, thank you, I never eat anything now; but it is very kind of
you, all the same, and you are much nicer than the rest of your
horrid, rude, vulgar, dishonest family.'
'Stop!' cried Virginia, stamping her foot, 'it is you who are rude,
and horrid, and vulgar, and as for dishonesty, you know you stole
the paints out of my box to try and furbish up that ridiculous
blood-stain in the library. First you took all my reds, including
the vermilion, and I couldn't do any more sunsets, then you took
the emerald-green and the chrome-yellow, and finally I had nothing
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pericles by William Shakespeare: Drew sleep out of mine eyes, blood from my cheeks,
Musings into my mind, with thousand doubts
How I might stop this tempest ere it came;
And finding little comfort to relieve them,
I thought it princely charity to grieve them.
HELICANUS.
Well, my lord, since you have given me leave to speak,
Freely will I speak. Antiochus you fear,
And justly too, I think, you fear the tyrant,
Who either by public war or private treason
Will take away your life.
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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 Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: With the sun rose the Fairies, and, with Eva, hastened away to
the fountain, whose cool waters were soon filled with little forms,
and the air ringing with happy voices, as the Elves floated in the
blue waves among the fair white lilies, or sat on the green moss,
smoothing their bright locks, and wearing fresh garlands of dewy
flowers. At length the Queen came forth, and her subjects gathered
round her, and while the flowers bowed their heads, and the trees
hushed their rustling, the Fairies sang their morning hymn to
the Father of birds and blossoms, who had made the earth so fair a
home for them.
Then they flew away to the gardens, and soon, high up among the
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 the Far East by Percival Lowell: descendants. Pedigrees in the land of the universal opposite are not
matters of bequest but of posthumous reversion. A man is not
beholden to the past, he looks forward to the future for inherited
honors. No fame attaches to him for having had an illustrious
grandfather. On the contrary, it is the illustrious grandson who
reflects some of his own greatness back upon his grandfather. If a
man therefore fail to attain eminence himself, he always has another
chance in his descendants; for he will of necessity be ennobled
through the merits of those who succeed him. Such is the immemorial
law of the land. Fame is retroactive. This admirable system has
only one objection: it is posthumous in its effect. An ambitious
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