| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: roar that might have been heard a mile. But no sooner had the last word
been sung than the holy man seized his steel cap, clapped it on his head,
and springing to his feet, cried in a great voice, "What spy have we here?
Come forth, thou limb of evil, and I will carve thee into as fine pudding
meat as e'er a wife in Yorkshire cooked of a Sunday." Hereupon he drew
from beneath his robes a great broadsword full as stout as was Robin's.
"Nay, put up thy pinking iron, friend," quoth Robin,
standing up with the tears of laughter still on his cheeks.
"Folk who have sung so sweetly together should not fight thereafter."
Hereupon he leaped down the bank to where the other stood.
"I tell thee, friend," said he, "my throat is as parched
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: caribou, no hare, no ptarmigan, nothing for many days. Provisions
were very low. There were six families together. Then la grippe
had taken hold of them. They were sick, starving. They would
probably die, at least most of the women and children. It was a bad
job.
Dan Scott had peculiar ideas of his duty toward the savages. He was
not romantic, but he liked to do the square thing. Besides, he had
been reading up on la grippe, and he had some new medicine for it,
capsules from Montreal, very powerful--quinine, phenacetine, and
morphine. He was as eager to try this new medicine as a boy is to
fire off a new gun. He loaded the Cometique with provisions and the
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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 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: Keimer had got a better house, a shop well supply'd with stationery,
plenty of new types, a number of hands, tho' none good, and seem'd
to have a great deal of business.
Mr. Denham took a store in Water-street, where we open'd our goods;
I attended the business diligently, studied accounts, and grew,
in a little time, expert at selling. We lodg'd and, boarded together;
he counsell'd me as a father, having a sincere regard for me.
I respected and lov'd him, and we might have gone on together
very happy; but, in the beginning of February, 1726-7, when I
had just pass'd my twenty-first year, we both were taken ill.
My distemper was a pleurisy, which very nearly carried me off.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: different opinion of him. His body was buried at Realmont; but
before the schools of Toulouse they set up a white marble slab, and
an inscription thereon setting forth his learning and his virtues;
and epitaphs on him were composed by the learned throughout Europe,
not only in French and Latin, but in Greek, Hebrew, and even
Chaldee.
So lived and so died a noble man; more noble, to my mind, than many
a victorious warrior, or successful statesman, or canonised saint.
To know facts, and to heal diseases, were the two objects of his
life. For them he toiled, as few men have toiled; and he died in
harness, at his work--the best death any man can die.
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