| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rig Veda: ye us for
opulence with strengthening food,
Prepare us for the food that floweth from our cows
10 1 have obtained the horseless car of Asvins rich in sacrifice,
And I am well content therewith.
11 May it convey me evermore: may the light chariot pass from
men
To men unto the Soma draught.
12 It holdeth slumber in contempt. and the rich who enjoyeth
not:
Both vanish quickly and are lost.
The Rig Veda |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: advanced a little farther towards the door, but, unless I had
lost the last spark of humanity, I could not continue longer
unmoved by such a spectacle.
"So far, indeed, was I from this kind of stoical indifference,
that, rushing at once into the very opposite extreme, I returned,
or rather flew back to her without an instant's reflection. I
lifted her in my arms; I gave her a thousand tender kisses; I
implored her to pardon my ungovernable temper; I confessed that I
was an absolute brute, and unworthy of being loved by such an
angel.
"I made her sit down, and throwing myself, in my turn, upon my
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: twinkles; close at the other, if you are a little inhumane, your cage
of silver-bills are twittering into song.
Joined along by a passage, you may reach the great, sunny, glass-
roofed, and tiled gymnasium, at the far end of which, lined with
bright marble, is your plunge and swimming bath, fitted with a
capacious boiler.
The whole loft of the house from end to end makes one undivided
chamber; here are set forth tables on which to model imaginary or
actual countries in putty or plaster, with tools and hardy pigments;
a carpenter's bench; and a spared corner for photography, while at
the far end a space is kept clear for playing soldiers. Two boxes
|
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 Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: me? And if any man should do wrong, merely out
of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or
briar, which prick and scratch, because they can
do no other. The most tolerable sort of revenge, is
for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy;
but then let a man take heed, the revenge be such
as there is no law to punish; else a man's enemy is
still before hand, and it is two for one. Some, when
they take revenge, are desirous, the party should
know, whence it cometh. This is the more gener-
ous. For the delight seemeth to be, not so much in
Essays of Francis Bacon |
