| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: If you have taught him
The things that you should.
Father and son
Must in all things be one --
Partners in trouble
And comrades in joy.
More than a dad
Was the best pal you had;
Be such a chum
As you knew, to your boy.
THE JUNE COUPLE
A Heap O' Livin' |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: piper who volunteered to explore its windings. He made
his entrance by the upper end, playing a strathspey; the
curious footed it after him down the street, following
his descent by the sound of the chanter from below; until
all of a sudden, about the level of St. Giles's, the
music came abruptly to an end, and the people in the
street stood at fault with hands uplifted. Whether he
was choked with gases, or perished in a quag, or was
removed bodily by the Evil One, remains a point of doubt;
but the piper has never again been seen or heard of from
that day to this. Perhaps he wandered down into the land
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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 Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: be very reasonably disputed. However, it must be confess'd the
matter is odd enough, whether we should endeavour to account for
it by chance, or the effect of imagination: For my own part, tho'
I believe no man has less faith in these matters, yet I shall
wait with some impatience, and not without some expectation, the
fulfilling of Mr. Bickerstaff's second prediction, that the
Cardinal de Noailles is to die upon the fourth of April, and if
that should be verified as exactly as this of poor Partridge, I
must own I should be wholly surprized, and at a loss, and should
infallibly expect the accomplishment of all the rest.
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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 Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: one being about a man who stole to give to a starving family. He
tells us in one way the man did right and in another way wrong.
It never is right to steal, because if caught he would be sent to
the penitentiary and would have to pay more than the things are
worth, and, then, if he was not caught, a thief would never get
along in the world. The other was the story of Indians
surrounding a settlement who asked the captain of a village to
give up a man. Adolf thought if he were a chief he would say to
give battle if the man had done no wrong, but on further
consideration states that he would rather give up one man than
risk the lives of many, and if he were a captain he would surely
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