The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: all due Submission and Obedience.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names
at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Raigne of our
Sovereigne Lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland,
the eighteenth, and of Scotland, the fiftie-fourth,
Anno. Domini, 1620.
Mr. John Carver Mr. Stephen Hopkins
Mr. William Bradford Digery Priest
Mr. Edward Winslow Thomas Williams
Mr. William Brewster Gilbert Winslow
Isaac Allerton Edmund Margesson
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: MELIBOEUS
And what so potent cause took you to Rome?
TITYRUS
Freedom, which, though belated, cast at length
Her eyes upon the sluggard, when my beard
'Gan whiter fall beneath the barber's blade-
Cast eyes, I say, and, though long tarrying, came,
Now when, from Galatea's yoke released,
I serve but Amaryllis: for I will own,
While Galatea reigned over me, I had
No hope of freedom, and no thought to save.
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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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: And they each held one of her little pink hands.
When they were at the cabin Sister Helen Vincula opened the old
trunk with the brass tacks on it, and she went down to the very
bottom of it, unpacking as she went. For the old trunk was almost
entirely packed for the going away to-morrow. Then Sister Helen
Vincula took out, from almost the bottom of the trunk, the little
white night-gown that had ``Bessie Bell'' written on it with linen
thread.
And Sister Helen Vincula laid the little white night-gown across the
lady's lap.
Then the lady read the name written with the linen thread.
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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 1492 by Mary Johntson: the village of these folk,--round huts thatched with palm
leaves, set on no streets, but at choice under trees. Earth
around was trodden hard, but the green woods pressed close.
Here and there showed garden patches with plants whose
names and uses we knew not. Now we came upon women
and children. Like the men the women were naked. Well-
shaped and comely, with long, black, braided hair, they
seemed to us gentle, pleasing and fearless. The children
were a crew that any might love.
Time lacks to say all that we did and heard and guessed
this day upon this island! It was first love after long weeks
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