| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: the children to the porch and stood looking after them, as the
mad, little band scurried about the back yard, darted in and out
amongst the trees, then up the side of the wooded hill, just
beyond the church.
The leaves once more were red and yellow on the trees, but to-day
the air was warm, and the children were wearing their summer
dresses. Polly's lithe, girlish figure looked almost tall by
comparison with the children about her. She wore a plain, simple
gown of white, which Mandy had helped her to make. It had been
cut ankle- length, for Polly was now seventeen. Her quaint,
old-fashioned manner, her serious eyes, and her trick of knotting
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: sensation by reason of its hardness, and impair the memory and dull the
edge of intelligence. Wherefore also the thighs and the shanks and the
hips, and the bones of the arms and the forearms, and other parts which
have no joints, and the inner bones, which on account of the rarity of the
soul in the marrow are destitute of reason--all these are abundantly
provided with flesh; but such as have mind in them are in general less
fleshy, except where the creator has made some part solely of flesh in
order to give sensation,--as, for example, the tongue. But commonly this
is not the case. For the nature which comes into being and grows up in us
by a law of necessity, does not admit of the combination of solid bone and
much flesh with acute perceptions. More than any other part the framework
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: "May I walk with you so far?" asked Bernard.
"It is not far; it 's only three minutes." And Angela moved
slowly to the gate of the Casino.
CHAPTER XX
Bernard walked beside her, and for some moments nothing was said
between them. As the silence continued, he became aware of it,
and it vexed him that she should leave certain things unsaid.
She had asked him no question--neither whence he had come, nor how long
he would stay, nor what had happened to him since they parted.
He wished to see whether this was intention or accident. He was
already complaining to himself that she expressed no interest in him,
|
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 The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: He considered the Beaver his friend.
While the Beaver confessed, with affectionate looks
More eloquent even than tears,
It had learned in ten minutes far more than all books
Would have taught it in seventy years.
They returned hand-in-hand, and the Bellman, unmanned
(For a moment) with noble emotion,
Said "This amply repays all the wearisome days
We have spent on the billowy ocean!"
Such friends, as the Beaver and Butcher became,
Have seldom if ever been known;
The Hunting of the Snark |
