| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: were made for each other!"
The display of the American flag by the Jasper B. had an effect
that could not have been foreseen.
Almost immediately the Annabel Lee herself flung an exactly
similar American flag to the breeze. But a strange thing happened
at Morris's. An American flag was first hung from an upper
window over the east verandah. Then, after a moment, it was
withdrawn. Then a red flag was put out. But almost immediately
Cleggett saw a man rip the red flag from its fastenings and fling
it to the ground.
Cleggett, resorting to his glass, perceived that it was the tall
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: The hour of time, and the delicious season;
But not so much, that did not give me fear
A lion's aspect which appeared to me.
He seemed as if against me he were coming
With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,
So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;
And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings
Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,
And many folk has caused to live forlorn!
She brought upon me so much heaviness,
With the affright that from her aspect came,
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: sweet Mawd: you must stay at home, you must ensconce;
for there is your tame sheriff on the one hand, that will take
you perforce; and there is your wild forester on the other hand,
that will take you without any force at all, Mawd: your wild
forester, Robin, cousin Robin, Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest,
that beats and binds bishops, spreads nets for archbishops,
and hunts a fat abbot as if he were a buck: excellent game,
no doubt, but you must hunt no more in such company. I see it now:
truly I might have guessed before that the bold outlaw Robin,
the most courteous Robin, the new thief of Sherwood Forest,
was your lover, the earl that has been: I might have guessed
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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 The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: your stings, bow yourselves down to your native dust, and
acknowledge that yours have been the thoughts of ignorance, and
the words of vain foolishness. Lo! ye are caught in your own
snare, and your own pit hath yawned for you. Turn, then, aside
from the task that is too heavy for you; destroy not your teeth
by gnawing a file; waste not your strength by spurning against a
castle wall; nor spend your breath in contending in swiftness
with a fleet steed; and let those weigh the Tales of my Landlord,
who shall bring with them the scales of candour cleansed from the
rust of prejudice by the hands of intelligent modesty. For these
alone they were compiled, as will appear from a brief narrative
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