| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: Meanwhile, in the hall of song, the multitude
Applauds the new performer. One, perchance,
One ultimate survivor lingers on,
And smiles, and to his ancient heart recalls
The long forgotten. Ere the morrow die,
He too, returning, through the curtain comes,
And the new age forgets us and goes on.
XLII
SING me a song of a lad that is gone,
Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
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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 Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: Thou do him lowly homage for the same.
And, for that purpose, here I summon thee,
Repair to France within these forty days,
That there, according as the custom is,
Thou mayst be sworn true liegeman to our King;
Or else thy title in that province dies,
And he him self will repossess the place.
KING EDWARD.
See, how occasion laughs me in the face!
No sooner minded to prepare for France,
But straight I am invited,--nay, with threats,
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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 The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: trivial detail had its significance, and the rapture of recovery
was embittered to Glennard by the perception of all that he had
missed. He had been pitiably, grotesquely stupid; and there was
irony in the thought that, but for the crisis through which he was
passing, he might have lived on in complacent ignorance of his
loss. It was as though she had bought him with her blood. . . .
That evening he and Alexa dined alone. After dinner he followed
her to the drawing-room. He no longer felt the need of avoiding
her; he was hardly conscious of her presence. After a few words
they lapsed into silence and he sat smoking with his eyes on the
fire. It was not that he was unwilling to talk to her; he felt a
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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 Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: men of blood had banished me on pain of death, and the constables
led me onward from village to village towards the wilderness. A
strong and cruel hand was wielding the knotted cords; they sunk
deep into the flesh, and thou mightst have tracked every reel and
totter of my footsteps by the blood that followed. As we went
on--"
"Have I not borne all this; and have I murmured?" interrupted
Pearson impatiently.
"Nay, friend but hear me," continued the other. "As we journeyed
on, night darkened on our path, so that no man could see the rage
of the persecutors or the constancy of my endurance, though
Twice Told Tales |
