| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Partially comforted, then his neighbour mounted the carriage,
Sitting like one prepared to make a wise jump, if needs be,
And the stallions, eager to reach their stables, coursed homewards,
While beneath their powerful hoofs the dust rose in thick clouds.
Long there stood the youth, and saw the dust rise before him,
Saw the dust disperse; but still he stood there, unthinking.
-----
VII. ERATO.
DOROTHEA.
As the man on a journey, who, just at the moment of sunset,
Fixes his gaze once more on the rapidly vanishing planet,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: conjuring tricks till doomsday, and it would not play bluff upon a
man like me."
Now at this the Fakeer was so much incensed that his hand trembled;
and, lo! in the midst of a miracle the cards fell from up his
sleeve.
"Where are you now?" asked the virtuous person. "And yet it shakes
not me!"
"The devil fly away with the Fakeer!" cried the priest. "I really
do not see the good of going on with this pilgrimage."
"Cheer up!" cried the virtuous person. "Great is the right, and
shall prevail!"
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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 Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: five hundred lances (say, three thousand men), and there he
was made prisoner as he led the van. According to one story,
some ragged English archer shot him down; and some diligent
English Pistol, hunting ransoms on the field of battle,
extracted him from under a heap of bodies and retailed him to
our King Henry. He was the most important capture of the
day, and used with all consideration. On the way to Calais,
Henry sent him a present of bread and wine (and bread, you
will remember, was an article of luxury in the English camp),
but Charles would neither eat nor drink. Thereupon, Henry
came to visit him in his quarters. "Noble cousin," said he,
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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 Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: But the melancholy of to-day lies on the writer's mind.
TICONDEROGA
A LEGEND OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS
TICONDEROGA
THIS is the tale of the man
Who heard a word in the night
In the land of the heathery hills,
In the days of the feud and the fight.
By the sides of the rainy sea,
Where never a stranger came,
On the awful lips of the dead,
Ballads |
