| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: hid her anguish against his knees. They clung thus in silence, a
long time, driven together down the same fierce blast of shame.
When at length she lifted her face he averted his. Her scorn
would have hurt him less than the tears on his hands.
She spoke languidly, like a child emerging from a passion of
weeping. "It was for the money--?"
His lips shaped an assent.
"That was the inheritance--that we married on?"
"Yes."
She drew back and rose to her feet. He sat watching her as she
wandered away from him.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: with the impact of an enormous cake which drove in squarely upon
its point. It ripped a score of pines out by the roots, then
swinging around and over, lifted its muddy base from the bottom of
the river and bore down upon the cabin, slicing the bank and trees
away like a gigantic knife. It seemed barely to graze the corner
of the cabin, but the cribbed logs tilted up like matches, and the
structure, like a toy house, fell backward in ruin.
"The labor of months! The labor of months, and the passage home!"
Davy wailed, while Montana Kid and the policeman dragged him
backward from the woodpiles.
"You'll 'ave plenty o' hoppertunity all in good time for yer
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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 Hamlet by William Shakespeare: And Mermaid-like, a while they bore her vp,
Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her owne distresse,
Or like a creature Natiue, and indued
Vnto that Element: but long it could not be,
Till that her garments, heauy with her drinke,
Pul'd the poore wretch from her melodious buy,
To muddy death
Laer. Alas then, is she drown'd?
Queen. Drown'd, drown'd
Laer. Too much of water hast thou poore Ophelia,
Hamlet |
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 Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling: Ran to the cave of his father and told him the shame that they spoke.
And the father of Ung gave answer, that was old and wise in the craft,
Maker of pictures aforetime, he leaned on his lance and laughed:
"If they could see as thou seest they would do what thou hast done,
And each man would make him a picture, and -- what would become of my son?
"There would be no pelts of the reindeer, flung down at thy cave for a gift,
Nor dole of the oily timber that comes on the Baltic drift;
No store of well-drilled needles, nor ouches of amber pale;
No new-cut tongues of the bison, nor meat of the stranded whale.
Verses 1889-1896 |
