| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: mention may provoke a smile?--I mean such things as hair, mud, dirt, or
anything else which is vile and paltry; would you suppose that each of
these has an idea distinct from the actual objects with which we come into
contact, or not?
Certainly not, said Socrates; visible things like these are such as they
appear to us, and I am afraid that there would be an absurdity in assuming
any idea of them, although I sometimes get disturbed, and begin to think
that there is nothing without an idea; but then again, when I have taken up
this position, I run away, because I am afraid that I may fall into a
bottomless pit of nonsense, and perish; and so I return to the ideas of
which I was just now speaking, and occupy myself with them.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: Bessie Bell thought that that was a very pretty tale that the Lady
was telling, but she did not know or understand that that tale was
about her. Then the Only-Just-Lady said, ``Sister Helen Vincula, it
will do you good, too, as well as this little girl to stay in the
high mountains.
Not until all of Bessie Bell's little blue checked aprons, and all
of her little blue dresses, and all of her little white petticoats,
and all of her little white night-gowns, and even the tiny old
night-gown with the linen thread name worked on it, had been put
with all the rest of her small belongings into the old trunk with
brass tacks in the leather, the old, old trunk that had belonged to
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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 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: interpretation of looks; and Safie sang to him the divine airs of
her native country.
"The Turk allowed this intimacy to take place and encouraged the hopes
of the youthful lovers, while in his heart he had formed far other plans.
He loathed the idea that his daughter should be united to a Christian,
but he feared the resentment of Felix if he should appear lukewarm,
for he knew that he was still in the power of his deliverer if he
should choose to betray him to the Italian state which they inhabited.
He revolved a thousand plans by which he should be enabled to prolong
the deceit until it might be no longer necessary, and secretly to take
his daughter with him when he departed. His plans were facilitated
Frankenstein |
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 Poems by Bronte Sisters: Even then, upon her homeward way,
Long--long her wandering steps delayed
To quit the sombre forest shade,
Through which her eerie pathway lay.
You ask if she had beauty's grace?
I know not--but a nobler face
My eyes have seldom seen;
A keen and fine intelligence,
And, better still, the truest sense
Were in her speaking mien.
But bloom or lustre was there none,
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