| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: married pair a most beautiful contest of wisdom and
generosity, and a life-long struggle towards an unattainable
ideal. Unattainable? Ay, surely unattainable, from the very
fact that they are two instead of one.
"Of making books there is no end," complained the
Preacher; and did not perceive how highly he was praising
letters as an occupation. There is no end, indeed, to making
books or experiments, or to travel, or to gathering wealth.
Problem gives rise to problem. We may study for ever, and we
are never as learned as we would. We have never made a statue
worthy of our dreams. And when we have discovered a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: a Far Oriental, so fundamental a part of himself is his love of
Nature that before we view its mirrored image it will be well to
look the emotion itself in the face. The Far Oriental lives in a
long day-dream of beauty. He muses rather than reasons, and all
musing, so the word itself confesses, springs from the inspiration
of a Muse. But this Muse appears not to him, as to the Greeks,
after the fashion of a woman, nor even more prosaically after the
likeness of a man. Unnatural though it seem to us, his inspiration
seeks no human symbol. His Muse is not kin to mankind. She is too
impersonal for any personification, for she is Nature.
That poet whose name carries with it a certain presumption of
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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 Macbeth by William Shakespeare: Seyt. 'Tis not needed yet
Macb. Ile put it on:
Send out moe Horses, skirre the Country round,
Hang those that talke of Feare. Giue me mine Armor:
How do's your Patient, Doctor?
Doct. Not so sicke my Lord,
As she is troubled with thicke-comming Fancies
That keepe her from her rest
Macb. Cure of that:
Can'st thou not Minister to a minde diseas'd,
Plucke from the Memory a rooted Sorrow,
Macbeth |
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 Desert Gold by Zane Grey: Toward dawn Gale managed to get some sleep. Then the morning
broke with the sun hidden back of the uplift of the plateau. The
horses trooped up the arroyo and snorted for water. After a hurried
breakfast the packs were hidden in holes in the lava. The saddles
were left where they were, and the horses allowed to graze and
wander at will. Canteens were filled, a small bag of food was
packed, and blankets made into a bundle.
Then Yaqui faced the steep ascent of the lava slope.
The trail he followed led up on the right side of the fissure,
opposite to the one he had come down. It was a steep climb, and
encumbered as the men were they made but slow progress. Mercedes
Desert Gold |
