| 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: you think you feel it?"
"Oh I do feel so ill ALL OVER me,
my dear Ribby; I have swallowed
a large tin patty-pan with a sharp
scalloped edge!"
"Shall I run for the doctor? I
will just lock up the spoons!"
"Oh yes, yes! fetch Dr. Maggotty,
my dear Ribby: he is a Pie
himself, he will certainly understand."
Ribby settled Duchess in an
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: 'What?' I cried, astonished. 'But this is infamous. You are
not prisoners!'
Mademoiselle laughed harshly.
'Are we not? Well, I suppose not; for if we wanted company,
Captain Larolle said that he would be delighted to see us--in the
parlour.'
'He has taken your parlour?' I said.
'He and his lieutenant sit there. But I suppose that we rebels
should be thankful,' she added bitterly; 'we have still our
bedrooms left to us.'
'Very well,' I said. 'Then I must deal with Clon as I can. But
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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 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: those "caddises," which crawl on the bottom in the stiller waters,
enclosed, all save the head and legs, in a tube of sand or pebbles,
shells or sticks, green or dead weeds, often arranged with quaint
symmetry, or of very graceful shape. Their aspect in this state
may be somewhat uninviting, but they compensate for their youthful
ugliness by the strangeness of their transformations, and often by
the delicate beauty of the perfect insects, as the "caddises,"
rising to the surface, become flying Phryganeae (caperers and sand-
flies), generally of various shades of fawn-colour; and the water-
crickets (though an unscientific eye may be able to discern but
little difference in them in the "larva," or imperfect state)
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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 A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson: How to send my vessel sailing on beyond.
For I mean to grow a little as the dolly at the helm,
And the dolly I intend to come alive;
And with him beside to help me, it's a-sailing I shall go,
It's a-sailing on the water, when the jolly breezes blow
And the vessel goes a dive-dive-dive.
O it's then you'll see me sailing through the rushes and the reeds,
And you'll hear the water singing at the prow;
For beside the dolly sailor, I'm to voyage and explore,
To land upon the island where no dolly was before,
And to fire the penny cannon in the bow.
A Child's Garden of Verses |
