| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: patient scholar, but of an untrained woman with fits of passionate
study; he had learned too much from dogma, given indeed by
cherished lips; and precocious as he was in the use of the tools of
the mind, he was truly backward in knowledge of life and of
himself. Such as it was at least, his home and school training was
now complete; and you are to conceive the lad as being formed in a
household of meagre revenue, among foreign surroundings, and under
the influence of an imperious drawing-room queen; from whom he
learned a great refinement of morals, a strong sense of duty, much
forwardness of bearing, all manner of studious and artistic
interests, and many ready-made opinions which he embraced with a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling:
I was the staunchest of our fleet
Till the sea rose beneath our feet
Unheralded, in hatred past all measure.
Into his pits he stamped my crew,
Buffeted, blinded, bound and threw,
Bidding me eyeless wait upon his pleasure.
Man made me, and my will
Verses 1889-1896 |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended
address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat
in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper.
Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations
have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great
contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies
of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress
of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known
to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory
and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction
in regard to it is ventured.
Second Inaugural Address |
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 The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: mount of Calvary; and it lay there two hundred year and more, into
the time that St. Helen, that was mother to Constantine the Emperor
of Rome. And she was daughter of King Coel, born in Colchester,
that was King of England, that was clept then Britain the more; the
which the Emperor Constance wedded to his wife, for her beauty, and
gat upon her Constantine, that was after Emperor of Rome, and King
of England.
And ye shall understand, that the cross of our Lord was eight
cubits long, and the overthwart piece was of length three cubits
and a half. And one part of the crown of our Lord, wherewith he
was crowned, and one of the nails, and the spear head, and many
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