| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: institution. When unusual extravagance was indulged in, it was
garnished with two funeral urns.
It must always be remembered that what is well and carefully made
by an honest workman, after a rational design, increases in beauty
and value as the years go on. The old furniture brought over by
the Pilgrims, two hundred years ago, which I saw in New England, is
just as good and as beautiful to-day as it was when it first came
here. Now, what you must do is to bring artists and handicraftsmen
together. Handicraftsmen cannot live, certainly cannot thrive,
without such companionship. Separate these two and you rob art of
all spiritual motive.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: pressure of numbers only to renew the assault, until the
Spaniards who survived, some fifty in all, surrendered to twenty
living pirates, who poured upon their decks like a score of
blood-stained, powder-grimed devils.
They lost their vessel by recapture, and Bartholomew Portuguese
barely escaped with his life through a series of almost
unbelievable adventures. But no sooner had he fairly escaped from
the clutches of the Spaniards than, gathering together another
band of adventurers, he fell upon the very same vessel in the
gloom of the night, recaptured her when she rode at anchor in the
harbor of Campeche under the guns of the fort, slipped the cable,
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: and enchanting. And she is a married woman, with all the complications
and duties of a household. The fibs that she must invent, the reasons
she must find for conforming to my whims would tax the ingenuity of
some of us! . . . Claudine never wearies; you can always count upon
her. It is not love, I tell her, it is infatuation. She writes to me
every day; I do not read her letters; she found that out, but still
she writes. See here; there are two hundred letters in this casket.
She begs me to wipe my razors on one of her letters every day, and I
punctually do so. She thinks, and rightly, that the sight of her
handwriting will put me in mind of her.'
"La Palferine was dressing as he told us this. I took up the letter
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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 The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: pieces of ice. This, however, relieved his thirst; an hour's repose
recruited his hardy frame, and with the indomitable spirit of
avarice he resumed his laborious journey.
His way now lay straight up a ridge of bare red rocks, without
a blade of grass to ease the foot or a projecting angle to afford an
inch of shade from the south sun. It was past noon and the rays
beat intensely upon the steep path, while the whole atmosphere was
motionless and penetrated with heat. Intense thirst was soon added
to the bodily fatigue with which Hans was now afflicted; glance
after glance he cast on the flask of water which hung at his belt.
"Three drops are enough," at last thought he; "I may, at least,
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