| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson: 2
Now that you have spelt your lesson, lay it down and go and play,
Seeking shells and seaweed on the sands of Monterey,
Watching all the mighty whalebones, lying buried by the breeze,
Tiny sandpipers, and the huge Pacific seas.
And remember in your playing, as the sea-fog rolls to you,
Long ere you could read it, how I told you what to do;
And that while you thought of no one, nearly half the world away
Some one thought of Louis on the beach of Monterey!
VI
To Any Reader
A Child's Garden of Verses |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: One bird, ere yet the woodland quires awake,
With brief reveille summons all the brake:
Chirp, chirp, it goes; nor waits an answer long;
And that small signal fills the grove with song.
Thus on my pipe I breathed a strain or two;
It scarce was music, but 'twas all I knew.
It was not music, for I lacked the art,
Yet what but frozen music filled my heart?
Chirp, chirp, I went, nor hoped a nobler strain;
But Heaven decreed I should not pipe in vain,
For, lo! not far from there, in secret dale,
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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 The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: sense," rejoined Blondet.
"Explain your meaning," said Finot.
"Here it is," returned Blondet. "There has been a good deal said about
affairs at Lyons; about the Republic cannonaded in the streets; well,
there was not a word of truth in it all. The Republic took up the
riots, just as an insurgent snatches up a rifle. The truth is queer
and profound, I can tell you. The Lyons trade is a soulless trade.
They will not weave a yard of silk unless they have the order and are
sure of payment. If orders fall off; the workmen may starve; they can
scarcely earn a living, convicts are better off. After the Revolution
of July, the distress reached such a pitch that the Lyons weavers--the
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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 Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: could trust, and who would answer for its safety. He then bade
him attend on the Lord Treasurer Danby next morning.
In obedience to this command, Tonge waited on his lordship at the
appointed time, and by the character of his replies helped to
develop his story of the plot. When asked if the document he had
given his majesty was the original of the deponent, Tonge
admitted it was in his own handwriting. On this, Lord Danby
expressed a desire to see the original, and likewise become
acquainted with its author. Nothing abashed, the rector replied
the manuscript was in his house, and accounted for its possession
by stating that, singularly enough, it had been thrust under his
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