| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Confessio Amantis by John Gower: He schal be resoun do profit
In holy cherche upon the plit
That he hath set his conscience;
Bot in the worldes reverence
Ther ben of suche manie glade,
Whan thei to thilke astat ben made, 300
Noght for the merite of the charge,
Bot for thei wolde hemself descharge
Of poverte and become grete;
And thus for Pompe and for beyete
The Scribe and ek the Pharisee
Confessio Amantis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum: the boy's side. "You pull the hair, and I'll pull
you, and together we ought to get it out easily."
"Wait a jiffy," called the Woozy, and then
it went to a tree and hugged it with its front
paws, so that its body couldn't be dragged
around by the pull. "All ready, now. Go ahead!"
Ojo grasped the hair with both hands and
pulled with all his strength, while Scraps seized
the boy around his waist and added her strength
to his. But the hair wouldn't budge. Instead, it
slipped out of Ojo's hands and he and Scraps
The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: out."
"Fine-looking men, upon my word!" said D'Artagnan.
"They belong to the regiment that was at Lens, which the
prince assigned to the cardinal."
"Ah, monsieur," said D'Artagnan, as if to sum up in a word
all that conversation, "if only his eminence would relent
and grant to Monsieur de la Fere our liberty."
"I wish it with all my heart," said Comminges.
"Then, if he should forget that visit, you would find no
inconvenience in reminding him of it?"
"Not at all."
Twenty Years After |
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 Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: thing to make sure you can do. Get your voice disciplined and
clear, and think only of accuracy; never of effect or expression:
if you have any soul worth expressing, it will show itself in your
singing; but most likely there are very few feelings in you, at
present, needing any particular expression; and the one thing you
have to do is to make a clear-voiced little instrument of yourself,
which other people can entirely depend upon for the note wanted.
So, in drawing, as soon as you can set down the right shape of
anything, and thereby explain its character to another person, or
make the look of it clear and interesting to a child, you will begin
to enjoy the art vividly for its own sake, and all your habits of
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