| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Just Folks by Edgar A. Guest: It had no hired singers or no other subterfuge
To get the people to attend, 'twas just a simple place
Where every Sunday we were told about God's saving grace;
No men of wealth were gathered there to help it with a gift;
The only worldly thing it had--a mortgage hard to lift.
And somehow, dreaming here to-day, I wish that I could know
The joy of once more sitting in that church of Long Ago.
Sue's Got a Baby
Sue's got a baby now, an' she
Is like her mother used to be;
Her face seems prettier, an' her ways
 Just Folks |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: of the sun, thanks to my mischievous intermediary. The web is
deserted; the proprietress is in her leafy hut. The telegraph-wire
performs its office; the Cross Spider hastens down, strides all
round her property, beholds the danger and hurriedly returns to her
hiding-place, without taking any measures against the intruder.
The latter, on her side, does not seem to be enjoying herself.
Were she placed on the web of one of her sisters, or even on that
of the Silky Epeira, she would have posted herself in the centre,
as soon as the struggle had ended in the other's death. This time
there is no struggle, for the web is deserted; nothing prevents her
from taking her position in the centre, the chief strategic point;
 The Life of the Spider |