| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: essential to the existence of the building was the labour of the workman
who passed a life of devotion in carving gargoyles or shaping rose-windows,
than that of the greatest master who drew general outlines: perhaps it was
yet more heroic; for, for the master-builder, who, even if it were but
vaguely, had an image of what the work would be when the last stone was
laid and the last spire raised, it was easy to labour with devotion and
zeal, though well he might know that the placing of that last stone and the
raising of that last spire would not be his, and that the building in its
full beauty and strength he should never see; but for the journeyman
labourer who carried on his duties and month by month toiled at carving his
own little gargoyle or shaping the traceries in his own little oriel
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: I said, ``I have been thinking. It seems to me that it
was wrong to come here and put my weight upon you.''
``No!'' he answered. ``Did we not swear then, when
we were young men? And we needed no oaths neither.
Let such thoughts be.--I am going to the palace to-morrow,
and you with me. The King and the Queen ride with a
great train into Granada. But Dona Beatrix will excuse
herself from going. The palace will be almost empty, and
we shall find her in the little gallery above the Queen's
garden.''
The next morning we went there, Don Enrique de Cerda
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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 Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: was as speedily out of sight as if he had vanished into the
deepening gloom. The young man sat a few moments by the roadside,
applauding himself greatly, and thinking with how clear a
conscience he should meet the minister in his morning walk, nor
shrink from the eye of good old Deacon Gookin. And what calm
sleep would be his that very night, which was to have been spent
so wickedly, but so purely and sweetly now, in the arms of Faith!
Amidst these pleasant and praiseworthy meditations, Goodman Brown
heard the tramp of horses along the road, and deemed it advisable
to conceal himself within the verge of the forest, conscious of
the guilty purpose that had brought him thither, though now so
Mosses From An Old Manse |
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 Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: looked often upon death, but never upon dishonour. Farewell,
Hamish! We never meet again."
She dashed from the hut like a lapwing, and perhaps for the
moment actually entertained the purpose which she expressed, of
parting with her son for ever. A fearful sight she would have
been that evening to any who might have met her wandering through
the wilderness like a restless spirit, and speaking to herself in
language which will endure no translation. She rambled for
hours, seeking rather than shunning the most dangerous paths.
The precarious track through the morass, the dizzy path along the
edge of the precipice or by the banks of the gulfing river, were
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