| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: and hence, O Hallelujah! hence no eating. The offer is a fair one:
I have not sold myself to the devil, for I could never find him. I
am married, but so are you. I sometimes write verses, but so do
you. Come! HIC QUIES! As for the commandments, I have broken
them so small that they are the dust of my chambers; you walk upon
them, triturate and toothless; and with the Golosh of Philosophy,
they shall not bite your heel. True, the tenement is falling. Ay,
friend, but yours also. Take a larger view; what is a year or two?
dust in the balance! 'Tis done, behold you Cosmo Stevenson, and me
R. L. Monkhouse; you at Hyeres, I in London; you rejoicing in the
clammiest repose, me proceeding to tear your tabernacle into rags,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: 'Now when we had gone down to the ship and to the sea,
first of all we drew the ship unto the fair salt water and
placed the mast and sails in the black ship, and took those
sheep and put them therein, and ourselves too climbed on
board, sorrowing, and shedding big tears. And in the wake
of our dark-prowed ship she sent a favouring wind that
filled the sails, a kindly escort,--even Circe of the
braided tresses, a dread goddess of human speech. And we
set in order all the gear throughout the ship and sat us
down; and the wind and the helmsman guided our barque. And
all day long her sails were stretched in her seafaring; and
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: the sight ofa wonderful fine Thing. I started--I gazed at her
with admiration --She appeared every moment more Charming, and
the unfortunate Musgrove became a captive to your Charms before I
had time to look about me. Yes Madam, I had the happiness of
adoring you, an happiness for which I cannot be too grateful.
"What said he to himself is Musgrove allowed to die for
Henrietta? Enviable Mortal! and may he pine for her who is the
object of universal admiration, who is adored by a Colonel, and
toasted by a Baronet! Adorable Henrietta how beautiful you are!
I declare you are quite divine! You are more than Mortal. You
are an Angel. You are Venus herself. In short Madam you are the
Love and Friendship |
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 Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: I have sympathised with the gloom of the Man of Wrath, confronted in
one week by two or three empty days on which no man will labour,
and have listened in silence to his remarks about distant Russian saints.
I suppose it was my own superfluous amount of civilisation
that made me pity these people when first I came to live among them.
They herd together like animals and do the work of animals;
but in spite of the armed overseer, the dirt and the rags,
the meals of potatoes washed down by weak vinegar and water,
I am beginning to believe that they would strongly object
to soap, I am sure they would not wear new clothes, and I
hear them coming home from their work at dusk singing.
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
