| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: 'Masha, do you know who this is?'--And in a whisper Praskovya
Mikhaylovna told her daughter who he was, and together they then
carried the bed and the cradle out of the tiny room and cleared
it for Sergius.
Praskovya Mikhaylovna led him into it.
'Here you can rest. Don't take offence . . . but I must go out.'
'Where to?'
'I have to go to a lesson. I am ashamed to tell you, but I teach
music!'
'Music? But that is good. Only just one thing, Praskovya
Mikhaylovna, I have come to you with a definite object. When can
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Love Songs by Sara Teasdale: That I could not answer,
I was chained to loneliness,
I, the dancer.
Willow, twinkling in the sun,
Still your leaves and hear me,
I can answer spring at last,
Love is near me!
The Wanderer
I saw the sunset-colored sands,
The Nile like flowing fire between,
Where Rameses stares forth serene,
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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 Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: his eyes a soft, dark hazel, forehead square, eyebrows straight,
nose of no very marked character, and a mouth moderately full, with
a tendency to twitch a little at the corners. His voice was
undertoned, but mellow and agreeable.
Mrs. Eunice Billings, of nearly equal age, was a good specimen of
the wide-awake New-England woman. Her face had a piquant smartness
of expression, which might have been refined into a sharp
edge, but for her natural hearty good-humor. Her head was smoothly
formed, her face a full oval, her hair and eyes blond and blue in
a strong light, but brown and steel-gray at other times, and her
complexion of that ripe fairness into which a ruddier color will
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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 Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: Changes into melting cloud,
There is a hush of pain and mirth,
No bird has heart to speak aloud.
Here in a world without a sky,
Without the ground, without the sea,
The one unchanging thing is I,
Myself remains to comfort me.
Arcturus
Arcturus brings the spring back
As surely now as when
He rose on eastern islands
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