| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: 'Like me! Flatterer!' she cried. 'But oblige me in one thing. Let
me find you waiting at the seat - yes, you shall await me; for on
this expedition it shall be no longer Prince and Countess, it shall
be the lady and the squire - and your friend the thief shall be no
nearer than the fountain. Do you promise?'
'Madam, in everything you are to command; you shall be captain, I am
but supercargo,' answered Otto.
'Well, Heaven bring all safe to port!' she said. 'It is not
Friday!'
Something in her manner had puzzled Otto, had possibly touched him
with suspicion.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: childe on a Recorder, a sound, but not in gouernment
Thes. His speech was like a tangled chaine: nothing
impaired, but all disordered. Who is next?
Tawyer with a Trumpet before them.
Enter Pyramus and Thisby, Wall, Moone-shine, and Lyon.
Prol. Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show,
But wonder on, till truth make all things plaine.
This man is Piramus, if you would know;
This beauteous Lady, Thisby is certaine.
This man, with lyme and rough-cast, doth present
Wall, that vile wall, which did these louers sunder:
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: I promised, of course. From that time till he left Newport we saw
each other every day, and though I found little opportunity to
express my own peculiar feelings, he comprehended many of my
wishes, and all my tastes. I grew fond of him hourly. Had I not
reason? Never was friend so considerate, never was lover more
devoted.
When he had been gone a few days, Aunt Eliza declared that she
was ready to depart from Newport. The rose-colored days were ended!
In two days we were on the Sound, coach, horses, servants, and
ourselves.
It was the 1st of September when we arrived in Bond Street. A
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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 Poems by Oscar Wilde: Her little lonely bed, and carols blithe
To see the heavy-lowing cattle wait
Stretching their huge and dripping mouths across the farmyard gate.
And sweet the hops upon the Kentish leas,
And sweet the wind that lifts the new-mown hay,
And sweet the fretful swarms of grumbling bees
That round and round the linden blossoms play;
And sweet the heifer breathing in the stall,
And the green bursting figs that hang upon the red-brick wall,
And sweet to hear the cuckoo mock the spring
While the last violet loiters by the well,
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