| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: see how this dew from a sweet, pure heart will give new life and
loveliness even to this poor faded one. So can you, dear Rainbow, by
loving words and gentle teachings, bring back lost purity and peace
to those whom pride and selfishness have blighted. Go once again
to the proud flowers, and tell them when they are queen of their own
hearts they will ask no fairer kingdom. Watch more tenderly than ever
over them, see that they lack neither dew nor air, speak lovingly
to them, and let no unkind word or deed of theirs anger you. Let them
see by your patient love and care how much fairer they might be,
and when next you come, you will be laden with gifts from humble,
loving flowers."
Flower Fables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: their sources. The statues of monarchs which had adorned the
Exchange, were smashed; that of its founder, Sir Thomas Gresham,
alone remaining entire. The ruins of St. Paul's, with its walls
standing black and cheerless, presented in itself a most
melancholy spectacle. Its pillars were embedded in ashes, its
cornices irretrievably destroyed, its great bell reduced to a
shapeless mass of metal; whilst its general air of desolation was
heightened by the fact that a few monuments, which had escaped
destruction, rose abruptly from amidst the charred DEBRIS.
But if the ruins of the capital looked sad by day, their
appearance was more appalling when seen by light of the moon,
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: rich enough already, nor had I any uneasy desires about getting
more money; therefore the profit of the voyage to me was of no
great force for the prompting me forward to further undertakings.
Hence, I thought that by this voyage I had made no progress at all,
because I was come back, as I might call it, to the place from
whence I came, as to a home: whereas, my eye, like that which
Solomon speaks of, was never satisfied with seeing. I was come
into a part of the world which I was never in before, and that
part, in particular, which I heard much of, and was resolved to see
as much of it as I could: and then I thought I might say I had
seen all the world that was worth seeing.
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: The forward servant pushed almost to the flier's side.
His eyes were narrowed to slits.
"All but one," he said.
The nobles looked at him in astonishment, and one
of them grasped the fellow none too gently by the
shoulder to push him back to his proper place.
Carthoris raised his hand.
"Wait," he urged. "Let us hear what the man has to
say--no creation of mortal mind is perfect. Perchance he
has detected a weakness that it will be well to know at
once. Come, my good fellow, and what may be the one
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
