| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and auburn hair of the bowman.
After he had listened for a moment to a partial narration
of their escape from the Torquasians, he invited them within,
took them to his house and bade the servants there prepare
food for them.
As they waited in the low-ceiled, pleasant livingroom
of the farmhouse until the meal should be ready,
Carthoris drew his host into conversation that
he might learn his nationality, and thus the nation
under whose dominion lay the waterway where circumstance
had placed him.
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: John kept himsel' wi' mistened leather
An' kindled spunk.
Wi' him, there was nae askin' whether -
John was aye drunk.
The auncient heroes gash an' bauld
In the uncanny days of auld,
The task ance fo(u)nd to which th'were called,
Stack stenchly to it.
His life sic noble lives recalled,
Little's he knew it.
Single an' straucht, he went his way.
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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 Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: waters, became a backslider, descending again to the ocean, and
grew gross and heavy with coarse feeding. But thou, unsalted
salmon of the foaming floods, not landlocked, as men call thee, but
choosing of thine own free-will to dwell on a loftier level, in the
pure, swift current of a living stream, hast grown in grace and
risen to a higher life. Thou art not to be measured by quantity,
but by quality, and thy five pounds of pure vigour will outweigh a
score of pounds of flesh less vitalised by spirit. Thou feedest on
the flies of the air, and thy food is transformed into an aerial
passion for flight, as thou springest across the pool, vaulting
toward the sky. Thine eyes have grown large and keen by peering
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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 Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: much more afraid of revolutions than in the ages of aristocracy,
but the leaders of the army much less so.
Moreover, as amongst democratic nations (to repeat what I
have just remarked) the wealthiest, the best educated, and the
most able men seldom adopt the military profession, the army,
taken collectively, eventually forms a small nation by itself,
where the mind is less enlarged, and habits are more rude than in
the nation at large. Now, this small uncivilized nation has arms
in its possession, and alone knows how to use them: for, indeed,
the pacific temper of the community increases the danger to which
a democratic people is exposed from the military and turbulent
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