| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: craned their necks and gazed in the direction whence the sound came,
and the crowding and the pushing and the swaying grew greater than ever.
And now a gallant array of men came gleaming into sight, and the cheering
of the people ran down the crowd as the fire runs in dry grass.
Eight and twenty heralds in velvet and cloth of gold came riding forward.
Over their heads fluttered a cloud of snow-white feathers, and each
herald bore in his hand a long silver trumpet, which he blew musically.
From each trumpet hung a heavy banner of velvet and cloth of gold,
with the royal arms of England emblazoned thereon. After these came
riding fivescore noble knights, two by two, all fully armed, saving that
their heads were uncovered. In their hands they bore tall lances,
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: others, and to this day we are still unconquered by them; but we were our
own conquerors, and received defeat at our own hands. Afterwards there was
quiet and peace abroad, but there sprang up war at home; and, if men are
destined to have civil war, no one could have desired that his city should
take the disorder in a milder form. How joyful and natural was the
reconciliation of those who came from the Piraeus and those who came from
the city; with what moderation did they order the war against the tyrants
in Eleusis, and in a manner how unlike what the other Hellenes expected!
And the reason of this gentleness was the veritable tie of blood, which
created among them a friendship as of kinsmen, faithful not in word only,
but in deed. And we ought also to remember those who then fell by one
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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 United States Bill of Rights: the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house,
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war,
but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,
and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath
or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched,
and the persons or things to be seized.
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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 Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: that was full of health, but wanting in action. This young man, born
to be a virtuous bourgeois, having left his native place and come to
Paris to be clerk with a color-merchant (formerly of Mayenne and a
distant connection of the Orgemonts) made himself a painter simply by
the fact of an obstinacy which constitutes the Breton character. What
he suffered, the manner in which he lived during those years of study,
God only knows. He suffered as much as great men suffer when they are
hounded by poverty and hunted like wild beasts by the pack of
commonplace minds and by troops of vanities athirst for vengeance.
As soon as he thought himself able to fly on his own wings, Fougeres
took a studio in the upper part of the rue des Martyrs, where he began
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