| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: that sea, so renowned on many accounts in history, both sacred and
profane.
In our description of this famous sea, an account of which may
justly be expected in this place, it is most convenient to begin
with the coast of Arabia, on which part at twelve leagues from the
mouth stands the city of Moca, a place of considerable trade. Forty
leagues farther is the Isle of Camaram, whose inhabitants are
annoyed with little serpents, which they call basilisks, which,
though very poisonous and deadly, do not, as the ancients have told
us, kill with their eyes, or if they have so fatal a power, it is
not at least in this place. Sailing ninety leagues farther, you see
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: he guessed you'd had all you wanted a' church folks. 'Jes' you
bring her along to Wakefield,' he said, 'an' tell her that her
place is waitin' for her,' and I will, too." He turned upon
Polly with sudden decision. "Why, I feel jes' like pickin' yer
up in my arms and carryin' you right off now."
"Wait, Jim!" She put one tiny hand on his arm to restrain him.
"I don't mean--not--to-day--mebbe"--he stammered, uncertainly,
"but we'll be back here a-showin' next month."
"Don't look at me now," Polly answered, as the dog-like eyes
searched her face, "because I have to say something that is going
to hurt you, Jim."
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: new, and she was old--they all forsook her and followed me. They
worshipped me. It was to my door that the flowers came; it was I had
twenty horses offered me when I could only ride one; it was for me they
waited at street corners; it was what I said and did that they talked of.
Partly I liked it. I had lived alone all my life; no one ever had told me
I was beautiful and a woman. I believed them. I did not know it was
simply a fashion, which one man had set and the rest followed
unreasoningly. I liked them to ask me to marry them, and to say, No. I
despised them. The mother heart had not swelled in me yet; I did not know
all men were my children, as the large woman knows when her heart is grown.
I was too small to be tender. I liked my power. I was like a child with a
|
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 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: the charge. She would be disturbed by no particular apprehensions,
so long as Pete adored her as he now said he did. She did not feel
like a bad woman. To her knowledge she had never seen any better.
At times men at other tables regarded the girl furtively.
Pete, aware of it, nodded at her and grinned. He felt proud.
"Mag, yer a bloomin' good-looker," he remarked, studying her
face through the haze. The men made Maggie fear, but she blushed
at Pete's words as it became apparent to her that she was the apple
of his eye.
Grey-headed men, wonderfully pathetic in their dissipation,
stared at her through clouds. Smooth-cheeked boys, some of them
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
