| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: And tell her she is thine: to whom I promise
A counterpoise; if not to thy estate,
A balance more replete.
BERTRAM.
I take her hand.
KING.
Good fortune and the favour of the king
Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony
Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief,
And be perform'd to-night: the solemn feast
Shall more attend upon the coming space,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: Where'er its blazoned page betrays
The glistening links of gilded fetters,
Behold, the half-turned leaf displays
Her rubric stained in crimson letters!
Enough! To speed a parting friend
'Tis vain alike to speak and listen; -
Yet stay, - these feeble accents blend
With rays of light from eyes that glisten.
Good-bye! once more, - and kindly tell
In words of peace the young world's story, -
And say, besides, - we love too well
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: fifty miles farther on, where the Ichim, one of the principal
affluents of the Irtych, had to be crossed. This passage
was rather more difficult than that of the Tobol. Indeed
the current of the Ichim was very rapid just at that place.
During the Siberian winter, the rivers being all frozen to
a thickness of several feet, they are easily practicable, and
the traveler even crosses them without being aware of the
fact, for their beds have disappeared under the snowy sheet
spread uniformly over the steppe; but in summer the diffi-
culties of crossing are sometimes great.
In fact, two hours were taken up in making the passage
|
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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: wisdom, as they are acts of judgment and selection, exercised
not on good and just and expedient only, but also on wicked,
unjust, and inexpedient objects, do not give their commendations
to the mere innocence whose boast is its inexperience of evil,
and whose truer name is, by their award, suppleness and
ignorance of what all men who live aright should know. The
ancient Spartans, at their festivals, used to force their Helots
to swallow large quantities of raw wine, and then to expose them
at the public tables, to let the young men see what it is to be
drunk. And, though I do not think it consistent with humanity
or with civil justice to correct one man's morals by corrupting
|
