| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: Now bent in heauen, shal behold the night
Of our solemnities
The. Go Philostrate,
Stirre vp the Athenian youth to merriments,
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth,
Turne melancholy forth to Funerals:
The pale companion is not for our pompe,
Hippolita, I woo'd thee with my sword,
And wonne thy loue, doing thee iniuries:
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pompe, with triumph, and with reuelling.
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: That we are not yet all on fire for shouting.
Skin most of us of our mediocrity,
We should have nothing then that we could scratch.
The picture smarts. Cover it, if you please,
And do so rather gently. Now for Norcross."
Ferguson closed his eyes in resignation,
While a dead sigh came out of him. "Good God!"
He said, and said it only half aloud,
As if he knew no longer now, nor cared,
If one were there to listen: "Have I said nothing --
Nothing at all -- of Norcross? Do you mean
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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 Economist by Xenophon: wage ceaseless war, for very freedom's sake, no less than if they were
armed warriors endeavouring to make us their slaves. Nay, foemen in
war, it must be granted, especially when of fair and noble type, have
many times ere now proved benefactors to those they have enslaved. By
dint of chastening, they have forced the vanquished to become better
men and to lead more tranquil lives in future.[22] But these despotic
queens never cease to plague and torment their victims in body and
soul and substance until their sway is ended.
[21] "To use others as their slaves."
[22] Lit. "Enemies for the matter of that, when, being beautiful and
good, they chance to have enslaved some other, have ere now in
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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 A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: And then the Moone, like to a siluer bow,
Now bent in heauen, shal behold the night
Of our solemnities
The. Go Philostrate,
Stirre vp the Athenian youth to merriments,
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth,
Turne melancholy forth to Funerals:
The pale companion is not for our pompe,
Hippolita, I woo'd thee with my sword,
And wonne thy loue, doing thee iniuries:
But I will wed thee in another key,
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
