| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: After that the soldier knew his way quickly enough. He clapped
his feather cap upon his head and into the palace he went, and
from one room to another, until at last he came to where the
princess sat weeping and wailing, with her pretty eyes red from
long crying.
Then the soldier took off his cap again, and you may guess what
sounds of rejoicing followed. They sat down beside one another,
and after the soldier had eaten, the princess told him all that
had happened to her; how the magician had found the stool, and
how he had transported the palace to this far-away land; how he
came every day and begged her to marry him--which she would
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: her. She looked up, bowing almost imperceptibly in response to his
greeting, without rising from the depths of the low chair in which she
lay. Bending forwards, she stirred the fire briskly, and stooped to
pick up a fallen glove, drawing it mechanically over her left hand,
while her eyes wandered in search of its fellow. The glance was
instantly checked, however, for she stretched out a thin, white, all-
but-transparent right hand, with flawless ovals of rose-colored nail
at the tips of the slender, ringless fingers, and pointed to a chair
as if to bid Gaston be seated. He sat down, and she turned her face
questioningly towards him. Words cannot describe the subtlety of the
winning charm and inquiry in that gesture; deliberate in its
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: distance.
"And the long, long night rolled on.
"All who leave the valley of superstition pass through that dark land; but
some go through it in a few days, some linger there for months, some for
years, and some die there."
The boy had crept closer; his hot breath almost touched the stranger's
hand; a mystic wonder filled his eyes.
"At last for the hunter a faint light played along the horizon, and he rose
to follow it; and he reached that light at last, and stepped into the broad
sunshine. Then before him rose the almighty mountains of Dry-facts and
Realities. The clear sunshine played on them, and the tops were lost in
|
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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: the last of Attic orators, statesman, philosopher, poet, warrior, and
each of them in the most graceful, insinuating, courtly way, migrates to
Alexandria, after having had the three hundred and sixty statues, which
the Athenians had too hastily erected to his honour, as hastily pulled
down again. Here was a prize for Ptolemy! The charming man became his
bosom friend and fellow, even revised the laws of his kingdom, and fired
him, if report says true, with a mighty thought--no less a one than the
great public Library of Alexandria; the first such institution, it is
said, which the world had ever seen.
So a library is begun by Soter, and organised and completed by
Philadelphus; or rather two libraries, for while one part was kept at
|
