| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: when they found that I was no Spaniard, they fed me and gave me a
house, and a wife (and a good wife she was to me), and painted me
all over in patterns, as you see; and because I had some knowledge
of surgery and blood-letting, and my fleams in my pocket, which
were worth to me a fortune, I rose to great honor among them,
though they taught me more of simples than ever I taught them of
surgery. So I lived with them merrily enough, being a very heathen
like them, or indeed worse, for they worshipped their Xemes, but I
nothing. And in time my wife bare me a child; in looking at whose
sweet face, gentlemen, I forgot Mr. Oxenham and his little maid,
and my oath, ay, and my native land also. Wherefore it was taken
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: courage; to all farewell!
"Farewell, you who die for the kings of the earth! Farewell, ye people
without a country and ye countries without a people, each, with a
mutual want. Above all, farewell to Thee who knew not where to lay Thy
head, Exile divine! Farewell, mothers beside your dying sons!
Farewell, ye Little Ones, ye Feeble, ye Suffering, you whose sorrows I
have so often borne! Farewell, all ye who have descended into the
sphere of Instinct that you may suffer there for others!
"Farewell, ye mariners who seek the Orient through the thick darkness
of your abstractions, vast as principles! Farewell, martyrs of
thought, led by thought into the presence of the True Light. Farewell,
Seraphita |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Just Folks by Edgar A. Guest: Earth's joys and blessings on a man.
Each one must choose the path he'll go,
Then win from it what joy he can.
And he that battles with the odds
Shall know success, but he who waits
The favors of the mystic gods,
Shall never come to glory's gates.
No man is greater than his will;
No gods to him will lend a hand!
Upon his courage and his skill
The record of his life must stand.
Just Folks |
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 King Lear by William Shakespeare: Requires a fitter place.
Alb. Sir, by your patience,
I hold you but a subject of this war,
Not as a brother.
Reg. That's as we list to grace him.
Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded
Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers,
Bore the commission of my place and person,
The which immediacy may well stand up
And call itself your brother.
Gon. Not so hot!
King Lear |
