| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: Men's secret thoughts that most concealed lie
He cast on puissant Godfrey, that assayed
To drive the Turks from Sion's bulwarks high,
And, full of zeal and faith, esteemed light
All worldly honor, empire, treasure, might:
IX
In Baldwin next he spied another thought,
Whom spirits proud to vain ambition move:
Tancred he saw his life's joy set at naught,
So woe-begone was he with pains of love:
Boemond the conquered folk of Antioch brought,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: very place where the light is warmest, the air freest. It is
the Friends' meeting-house. Once a week they sit there, in
their grave, earnest way, waiting for the Spirit of Love to
speak, opening their simple hearts to receive His words. There
is a woman, old, deformed, who takes a humble place among them:
waiting like them: in her gray dress, her worn face, pure and
meek, turned now and then to the sky. A woman much loved by
these silent, resfful people; more silent than they, more
humble, more loving. Waiting: with her eyes turned to hills
higher and purer than these on which she lives,dim and far off
now, but to be reached some day. There may be in her heart some
Life in the Iron-Mills |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: be lost. But when Nature, often so stupid, really does take
stock and become aware that she has created an eagle she does not
permit that eagle to be killed before its wings are fledged.
Napoleon was picked out of the ditch. Cleggett was only stunned.
Both were saved for larger triumphs. The association of names is
not accidental. These two men were, in some respects, not
dissimilar, although Bonaparte lacked Cleggett's breeding.
When Cleggett regained consciousness he was on deck; George,
Kuroki and Cap'n Abernethy stood about him in a little semicircle
of anxiety; Lady Agatha was applying a cold compress to the bump
upon his head. (He made nothing of his other scratches.) As for
|
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 I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.: never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue
of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and
the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the
Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.
We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi
cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for
which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be
satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness
like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great
trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow
|
