| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: On Ascension Day we left Baylur, having procured some camels and
asses to carry our baggage. The first day's march was not above a
league, and the others not much longer. Our guides performed their
office very ill, being influenced, as we imagined, by the Chec Furt,
an officer, whom, though unwilling, we were forced to take with us.
This man, who might have brought us to the king in three days, led
us out of the way through horrid deserts destitute of water, or
where what we found was so foul, nauseous, and offensive, that it
excited a loathing and aversion which nothing but extreme necessity
could have overcome.
Having travelled some days, we were met by the King's brother, to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: The billiard-room at the Green Dragon was the constant resort of
a certain set, most of whom, like our acquaintance Mr. Bambridge,
were regarded as men of pleasure. It was here that poor Fred Vincy
had made part of his memorable debt, having lost money in betting,
and been obliged to borrow of that gay companion. It was generally known
in Middlemarch that a good deal of money was lost and won in this way;
and the consequent repute of the Green Dragon as a place of dissipation
naturally heightened in some quarters the temptation to go there.
Probably its regular visitants, like the initiates of freemasonry,
wished that there were something a little more tremendous to keep
to themselves concerning it; but they were not a closed community,
Middlemarch |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: So we, exulting, hearkened and desired.
For lo! as in the palace porch of life
We huddled with chimeras, from within -
How sweet to hear! - the music swelled and fell,
And through the breach of the revolving doors
What dreams of splendour blinded us and fled!
I have since then contended and rejoiced;
Amid the glories of the house of life
Profoundly entered, and the shrine beheld:
Yet when the lamp from my expiring eyes
Shall dwindle and recede, the voice of love
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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 Symposium by Plato: tell what they want of one another. But if Hephaestus were to come to them
with his instruments and propose that they should be melted into one and
remain one here and hereafter, they would acknowledge that this was the
very expression of their want. For love is the desire of the whole, and
the pursuit of the whole is called love. There was a time when the two
sexes were only one, but now God has halved them,--much as the
Lacedaemonians have cut up the Arcadians,--and if they do not behave
themselves he will divide them again, and they will hop about with half a
nose and face in basso relievo. Wherefore let us exhort all men to piety,
that we may obtain the goods of which love is the author, and be reconciled
to God, and find our own true loves, which rarely happens in this world.
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