| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: Ruysum. Our most gracious king and master! Long life
to him.
Soest. Did you not like his father, Charles the Fifth, better?
Ruysum. God bless him! He was a king indeed! His hand reached over the
whole earth, and he was all in all. Yet, when he met you, he'd greet you
just as one neighbour
greets another,--and if you were frightened, he knew so well how to put
you at your ease--ay, you understand me--he walked out, rode out, just as
it came into his head, with very few followers. We all wept when he
resigned the government here to his son. You understand me--he is
another sort of man, he's more majestic.
Egmont |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: the royal kraal, Duguza, and watches men and women of the Zulu blood
passing homeward from the cities or the mines, bemused, some of them,
with the white man's smuggled liquor, grotesque with the white man's
cast-off garments, hiding, perhaps, in their blankets examples of the
white man's doubtful photographs--and then shuts his sunken eyes and
remembers the plumed and kilted regiments making that same ground shake
as, with a thunder of salute, line upon line, company upon company, they
rushed out to battle.
Well, because the latter does not attract me, it is of this former time
that I have tried to write--the time of the Impis and the witch-finders
and the rival princes of the royal House--as I am glad to learn from
Child of Storm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Profits of Religion by Upton Sinclair: capacious robes a generous share of the loot which he has
collected. The majestic one does not cringe, nor does he make any
effort to hide what is going on. On the contrary he cries aloud,
"It is more blessed to give than to receive!" And again he cries,
"The laborer is worthy of his hire!" And a third time he cries,
yet more sternly, "Render unto Caesar the things which are
Caesar's!" And the Bootstrap-lifters pause long enough to answer:
"Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this
law!" Then they renew their straining and tugging.
I step up, and in timid tones begin, "Reverend sir, will you tell
me by what right you take this wealth?"
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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 Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: The doctor maintained his expression of intelligent interest.
"She wants to go on with her work. She is able to work
anywhere. All she wants is just cardboard and ink. My mind on
the other hand turns back to the Fuel Commission . . . ."
"Then any little thing makes trouble."
"Any little thing makes trouble. And we always drift round to
the same discussion; whether we ought really to go on
together."
"It is you begin that?"
"Yes, I start that. You see she is perfectly contented when I
am about. She is as fond of me as I am of her."
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