| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: the groves in the manner of spilled naphtha, actually
waist high with green feed, sown with flowers like a
brocade. Quaint tributary little brooks babble and
murmur down through these trees, down through
these lawns. A blessed warm sun hums with the joy
of innumerable bees. To right hand and to left,
in front of you and behind, rising sheer, forbidding,
impregnable, the cliffs, mountains, and ranges hem
you in. Down the river ten miles you can go: then
the gorge closes, the river grows savage, you can only
look down the tumbling fierce waters and turn back.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: locomotion; having become a mere distended bladder, which when filled with
eggs bursts and ends a parasitic existence which has hardly been life. It
is not impossible, and it appears, indeed, highly probable, that it has
been this degeneration and parasitism on the part of the female which has
set its limitation to the evolution of ants, creatures which, having
reached a point of mental development in some respects almost as high as
that of man, have yet become curiously and immovably arrested. The whole
question of sex-parasitism among the lower animals is one throwing
suggestive and instructive side-lights on human social problems, but is too
extensive to be here entered on.)
Again and again in the history of the past, when among human creatures a
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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 A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: resolved to adopt it. So Peter the Knook called to the reindeer, and
the faithful animals again sprang forward and dashed over hill and
valley, through forest and plain, until they came to the houses
wherein children lay sleeping and dreaming of the pretty gifts they
would find on Christmas morning.
The little immortals had set themselves a difficult task; for although
they had assisted Santa Claus on many of his journeys, their master
had always directed and guided them and told them exactly what he
wished them to do. But now they had to distribute the toys according
to their own judgment, and they did not understand children as well as
did old Santa. So it is no wonder they made some laughable errors.
A Kidnapped Santa Claus |
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 First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: and so nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it better
to forego for the time the uses of such offices.
The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts
of the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that
sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought
and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed unless current
events and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper,
and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised
according to circumstances actually existing, and with a view and
a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles and the
restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections.
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