| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: sweet groaning thunder of the organ floated out of the church like
a summons. I was not averse, liking the theatre so well, to sit
out an act or two of the play, but I could never rightly make out
the nature of the service I beheld. Four or five priests and as
many choristers were singing MISERERE before the high altar when I
went in. There was no congregation but a few old women on chairs
and old men kneeling on the pavement. After a while a long train
of young girls, walking two and two, each with a lighted taper in
her hand, and all dressed in black with a white veil, came from
behind the altar, and began to descend the nave; the four first
carrying a Virgin and child upon a table. The priests and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: acceptance not so much on demonstrable proof or formal evidence,
but on a kind of spiritual and artistic sense, by which alone he
claimed could the true meaning of the poems be discerned. I
remember his reading to me that fine sonnet -
How can my Muse want subject to invent,
While thou dost breathe, that pour'st into my verse
Thine own sweet argument, too excellent
For every vulgar paper to rehearse?
O, give thyself the thanks, if aught in me
Worthy perusal stand against thy sight;
For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee,
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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 Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: screw, he who fixed the angle of my chin and gently disposed my
fingers on my knee. He gave me, I remember, a recent portrait of
the Viceroy to fix my eye upon, doubtless with the purpose of
inspiring my countenance with the devotion which would sit suitably
upon one of His Excellency's slaves, and when it was all over he
conducted me into another apartment in order that I might see the
very latest viceregal group--a domestic one, including the Staff.
The walls of the room contained what is usually there, the enlarged
photograph, the coloured photograph, the amateur theatrical group,
the group of His Excellency's Executive Council, the native
dignitary with a diamond-tipped aigrette in the front of his turban.
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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 The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: He crossed the level plains of the Nisaeans, where the
famous herds of horses, feeding in the wide pastures, tossed
their heads at Vasda's approach, and galloped away with a
thunder of many hoofs, and flocks of wild birds rose suddenly
from the swampy meadows, wheeling in great circles with a
shining flutter of innumerable wings and shrill cries of
surprise.
He traversed the fertile fields of Concabar, where the
dust from the threshing-floors filled the air with a golden
mist, half hiding the huge temple of Astarte with its four
hundred pillars.
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