| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: extreme statement, if so I may make an emphatic one, for there
are enough champions of civilization: the minister and the school
committee and every one of you will take care of that.
I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life
who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks--who
had a genius, so to speak, for SAUNTERING, which word is
beautifully derived "from idle people who roved about the
country, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under pretense of
going a la Sainte Terre," to the Holy Land, till the children
exclaimed, "There goes a Sainte-Terrer," a Saunterer, a
Holy-Lander. They who never go to the Holy Land in their walks,
Walking |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: below. Al. "stelle die Fallnetze auf die Wechsel," Lenz.
[17] {anteridas}. See a note in the "Class. Rev." X. i. p. 7, by G. S.
Sale: "It can only mean long sticks used as stretchers or
spreaders to hold up the net between and beyond the props." Cf.
Thuc. vii. 36, 2.
[18] Or, "within the bay of network."
[19] {sunekhontai en tois psilois ai e}. "Denn diese werden an
unbestandenen Orten durch die Leine niedergezogen," Lenz;
{sunelkontai} conj. Schn.; {sunerkhontai} al., "concurrunt," vid.
Sturz.
[20] {ta dusorma}, met. from "bad harbourage." Cf. Arsch. "Pers." 448;
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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 Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: I found the water frozen in the font,
And touched but ice within the carved stone.
The saints had hid themselves away from me,
Leaving the windows black against the night;
And when I sank upon the altar steps,
Before the Virgin Mother and her Child,
The last, pale, low-burnt taper flickered out,
But in the darkness, smooth and fathomless,
Still twinkled like a star the holy lamp
That cast a dusky glow upon her face.
Then through the numbing cold peace fell on me,
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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 When a Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "No!" I gave a last clutch at my resolution. "People who do that
kind of thing always get into trouble. She might miss her train.
She's almost certain to miss her train."
"You're temporizing," Dallas said sternly. "We won't let her miss
her train; you can be sure of that."
"Jim," Anne broke in suddenly, "hasn't she a picture of Bella?
There's not the faintest resemblance between Bella and Kit."
Jim became downcast again. "I sent her a miniature of Bella a
couple of years ago," he said despondently. "Did it myself."
But Dal said he remembered the miniature, and it looked more like
me than Bella, anyhow. So we were just where we started. And down
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