| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: In accursed places; beheld, unblenched, the ribbon of light (9)
Spin from temple to temple; guided the perilous skiff,
Abhorred not the paths of the mountain and trod the verge of the cliff;
From end to end of the island, thought not the distance long,
But forth from king to king carried the tale of her wrong.
To king after king, as they sat in the palace door, she came,
Claiming kinship, declaiming verses, naming her name
And the names of all of her fathers; and still, with a heart on the rack,
Jested to capture a hearing and laughed when they jested back:
So would deceive them awhile, and change and return in a breath,
And on all the men of Vaiau imprecate instant death;
Ballads |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: a brief, reasoned, and memorable view. By the necessity of
the case, all the more neutral circumstances are omitted from
his narrative; and that of itself, by the negative
exaggeration of which I have spoken in the text, lends to the
matter in hand a certain false and specious glitter. By the
necessity of the case, again, he is forced to view his
subject throughout in a particular illumination, like a
studio artifice. Like Hales with Pepys, he must nearly break
his sitter's neck to get the proper shadows on the portrait.
It is from one side only that he has time to represent his
subject. The side selected will either be the one most
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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 Master Key by L. Frank Baum: an inch in thickness.
"What is it?" asked Rob, wonderingly.
"It is an automatic Record of Events," answered the Demon.
"I don't understand," said Rob, with hesitation.
"I will explain to you its use," returned the Demon, "although the
electrical forces which operate it and the vibratory currents which
are the true records must remain unknown to you until your brain has
mastered the higher knowledge of electricity. At present the
practical side of this invention will be more interesting to you than
a review of its scientific construction.
"Suppose you wish to know the principal events that are occurring in
The Master Key |
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 A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: There's a wondrous smell of spices
In the kitchen,
Most bewitchin';
There are fruits cut into slices
That just set the palate itchin';
There's the sound of spoon on platter
And the rattle and the clatter;
And a bunch of kids are hastin'
To the splendid joy of tastin':
It's the frangrant time of year
When fruit-cannin' days are here.
A Heap O' Livin' |
