| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: Selene weeps while all the tides are stayed
And swaying seas are darkened into peace.
But they who wake the meadows and the tides
Have hearts too kind to bid him wake from sleep
Who murmurs sometimes when his dreams are deep,
Startling the Quiet Land where he abides,
And charming still, sad-eyed Persephone
With visions of the sunny earth and sea.
Silence
(To Eleonora Duse)
We are anhungered after solitude,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: brow--only haughty disdain for her priests and
admiration for the man she loved so hopelessly filled
her thoughts.
Suddenly upon this scene burst the mad bull--a huge
tusker, his little eyes inflamed with insane rage.
The priests stood for an instant paralyzed with terror;
but Tarzan turned and gathering La in his arms raced for
the nearest tree. Tantor bore down upon him trumpeting shrilly.
La clung with both white arms about the ape-man's neck.
She felt him leap into the air and
marveled at his strength and his ability as, burdened
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: She bade good night that kept my rest away;
And daff'd me to a cabin hang'd with care,
To descant on the doubts of my decay.
'Farewell,' quoth she, 'and come again tomorrow:
Fare well I could not, for I supp'd with sorrow.
Yet at my parting sweetly did she smile,
In scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether:
'T may be, she joy'd to jest at my exile,
'T may be, again to make me wander thither:
'Wander,' a word for shadows like myself,
As take the pain, but cannot pluck the pelf.
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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 The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: and at last I was so cruel to my sailors, here in these very seas,
that they set me adrift in an open boat, and I never was heard of
more. So now I'm the king of all mollys, till I've worked out my
time."
And now they came to the edge of the pack, and beyond it they could
see Shiny Wall looming, through mist, and snow, and storm. But the
pack rolled horribly upon the swell, and the ice giants fought and
roared, and leapt upon each other's backs, and ground each other to
powder, so that Tom was afraid to venture among them, lest he
should be ground to powder too. And he was the more afraid, when
he saw lying among the ice pack the wrecks of many a gallant ship;
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