| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: offered as a premium for each set they should find; and, after
much patient application, they succeeded to-day in hooking one
of these lost anchors with its chain.
It was a general remark at the Bell Rock, as before
noticed, that fish were never plenty in its neighbourhood
excepting in good weather. Indeed, the seamen used to
speculate about the state of the weather from their success in
fishing. When the fish disappeared at the rock, it was
considered a sure indication that a gale was not far off, as
the fish seemed to seek shelter in deeper water from the
roughness of the sea during these changes in the weather. At
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: Deep be it quaffed, the magic draught
That fills the soul with golden fancies!
For Youth and Pleasance will not stay,
And ye are withered, worn, and gray.
Ah, well-a-day!
O fair cold face! O form of grace,
For human passion madly yearning!
O weary air of dumb despair,
From marble won, to marble turning!
"Leave us not thus!" we fondly pray.
"We cannot let thee pass away!"
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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 Summer by Edith Wharton: flashes the velvet curtains of the darkness were
descending, and in the intervals of eclipse the voices
of the crowds seemed to sink to smothered murmurs.
Charity and Harney, dispossessed by newcomers, were at
length obliged to give up their table and struggle
through the throng about the boat-landings. For a
while there seemed no escape from the tide of late
arrivals; but finally Harney secured the last two
places on the stand from which the more privileged were
to see the fireworks. The seats were at the end of a
row, one above the other. Charity had taken off her
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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 Dracula by Bram Stoker: he is brute, and more than brute, he is devil in callous,
and the heart of him is not, he can, within his range,
direct the elements, the storm, the fog, the thunder,
he can command all the meaner things, the rat, and the owl,
and the bat, the moth, and the fox, and the wolf, he can grow
and become small, and he can at times vanish and come unknown.
How then are we to begin our strike to destroy him? How shall
we find his where, and having found it, how can we destroy?
My friends, this is much, it is a terrible task that we undertake,
and there may be consequence to make the brave shudder.
For if we fail in this our fight he must surely win,
Dracula |
