| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: MELIBOEUS TITYRUS
MELIBOEUS
You, Tityrus, 'neath a broad beech-canopy
Reclining, on the slender oat rehearse
Your silvan ditties: I from my sweet fields,
And home's familiar bounds, even now depart.
Exiled from home am I; while, Tityrus, you
Sit careless in the shade, and, at your call,
"Fair Amaryllis" bid the woods resound.
TITYRUS
O Meliboeus, 'twas a god vouchsafed
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: "Sir," said Athos, "permit me to tell you, that your
reasoning, though specious in appearance, nevertheless wants
consistency, as regards me. I have remained, you say, to
divert suspicion. Well! on the contrary, suspicions arise in
me as well as in you; and I say, it is impossible,
gentlemen, that the general, on the eve of a battle, should
leave his army without saying anything to at least one of
his officers. Yes, there is some strange event connected
with this; instead of being idle and waiting, you must
display all the activity and all the vigilance possible. I
am your prisoner, gentlemen, upon parole or otherwise. My
Ten Years Later |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: In the silence that followed his words the door opened and closed and he was
gone.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Betty awoke with a start. She was wide awake in a second. The moonbeams came
through the leaves of the maple tree near her window and cast fantastic
shadows on the wall of her room. Betty lay quiet, watching the fairy-like
figures on the wall and listening intently. What had awakened her? The night
was still; the crow of a cock in the distance proclaimed that the hour of dawn
was near at hand. She waited for Tige's bark under her window, or Sam's voice,
or the kicking and trampling of horses in the barn--sounds that usually broke
her slumbers in the morning. But no such noises were forthcoming. Suddenly she
Betty Zane |
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 Aeneid by Virgil: To see such numbers whom so few had kill'd.
Serranus, Rhamnes, and the rest, they found:
Vast crowds the dying and the dead surround;
And the yet reeking blood o'erflows the ground.
All knew the helmet which Messapus lost,
But mourn'd a purchase that so dear had cost.
Now rose the ruddy morn from Tithon's bed,
And with the dawn of day the skies o'erspread;
Nor long the sun his daily course withheld,
But added colors to the world reveal'd:
When early Turnus, wak'ning with the light,
Aeneid |
