| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: awoke completely, and remembered everything. The cold cart was
his dead and frozen master lying upon him. And the knock was
produced by Mukhorty, who had twice struck the sledge with his
hoof.
'Andreevich! Eh, Andreevich!' Nikita called cautiously,
beginning to realize the truth, and straightening his back.
But Vasili Andreevich did not answer and his stomach and legs
were stiff and cold and heavy like iron weights.
'He must have died! May the Kingdom of Heaven be his!' thought
Nikita.
He turned his head, dug with his hand through the snow about
Master and Man |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: that much of it came from that mysterious ancient Western Church,
the Church of St. Patric, St. Bridget, St. Columba, which had
covered with rude cells and chapels the rocky islets of the North
Atlantic, even to Iceland itself. Even to Iceland; for when that
island was first discovered, about A.D. 840, the Norsemen found in
an isle, on the east and west and elsewhere, Irish books and bells
and wooden crosses, and named that island Papey, the isle of the
popes--some little colony of monks, who lived by fishing, and who
are said to have left the land when the Norsemen settled in it. Let
us believe, for it is consonant with reason and experience, that the
sight of those poor monks, plundered and massacred again and again
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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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: My sighs and tears and will not once relent?
Who should be pitiful, if you be not?
Or who should study to prefer a peace,
If holy churchmen take delight in broils?
WARWICK.
Yield, my lord protector; yield, Winchester;
Except you mean with obstinate repulse
To slay your sovereign and destroy the realm.
You see what mischief and what murder too
Hath been enacted through your enmity;
Then be at peace, except ye thirst for blood.
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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 Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: "Never mind," said the King; "he does not sleep always!"
Next day, as Claus traveled to the village across the plain, where he
intended to present a toy squirrel to a lame boy, he was suddenly set
upon by the Awgwas, who seized him and carried him away to the mountains.
There they thrust him within a deep cavern and rolled many huge rocks
against the entrance to prevent his escape.
Deprived thus of light and food, and with little air to breathe, our
Claus was, indeed, in a pitiful plight. But he spoke the mystic words
of the Fairies, which always command their friendly aid, and they came
to his rescue and transported him to the Laughing Valley in the
twinkling of an eye.
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus |
