| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Collection of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: wander about, going lippity--
lippity--not very fast, and
looking all around.
HE found a door in a wall;
but it was locked, and
there was no room for a fat
little rabbit to squeeze
underneath.
An old mouse was running
in and out over the stone doorstep,
carrying peas and beans
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: young of their own species and of both sexes must dominate all
other creatures. The Wieroo first began to produce their own
kind--after which evolution from Galu to Wieroo ceased
gradually until now it is unknown; but the Wieroo produce only
males--which is why they steal our female young, and by stealing
cos-ata-lo they increase their own chances of eventually
reproducing both sexes and at the same time lessen ours.
Already the Galus produce both male and female; but so
carefully do the Wieroo watch us that few of the males ever
grow to manhood, while even fewer are the females that are not
stolen away. It is indeed a strange condition, for while our
The People That Time Forgot |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Vailima Prayers & Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson: shameless disregard of all that is reputable in Samoan social life.
No doubt, to many, the evening service is no more than a duty
fulfilled. The child who says his prayer at his mother's knee can
have no real conception of the meaning of the words he lisps so
readily, yet he goes to his little bed with a sense of heavenly
protection that he would miss were the prayer forgotten. The
average Samoan is but a larger child in most things, and would lay
an uneasy head on his wooden pillow if he had not joined, even
perfunctorily, in the evening service. With my husband, prayer,
the direct appeal, was a necessity. When he was happy he felt
impelled to offer thanks for that undeserved joy; when in sorrow,
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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 Iliad by Homer: Meriones stoop down, raise the body, and bear it out of the fray,
while we two behind you keep off Hector and the Trojans, one in
heart as in name, and long used to fighting side by side with one
another."
On this Menelaus and Meriones took the dead man in their arms and
lifted him high aloft with a great effort. The Trojan host raised
a hue and cry behind them when they saw the Achaeans bearing the
body away, and flew after them like hounds attacking a wounded
boar at the loo of a band of young huntsmen. For a while the
hounds fly at him as though they would tear him in pieces, but
now and again he turns on them in a fury, scaring and scattering
The Iliad |
