| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: Always to keep the little white night-gown.''
And the other grown-up person said: ``And how comes that to be all
that you know?''
Sister Angela said: ``Because of the fever.''
And the pretty one said: ``The dreadful fever!''
Sister Angela said: ``Yes. The dreadful fever. It often leaves
none in a house, and even sometimes none in a whole neighborhood to
tell the story.''
If, as Sister Angela and the pretty grown person talked, there came
to Bessie Bell any thought of a great silent house, and a big white
cat, with just one bit of black spot on its tail, why if such a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The United States Bill of Rights: the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb;
nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,
nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have
been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature
and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him;
to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,
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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 Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: a pretty presence, indeed, to get into my castle with force and arms,
and make a famine in my buttery, and a drought in my cellar,
and a void in my strong box, and a vacuum in my silver scullery."
"Lord Fitzwater," cried one, "take heed how you resist lawful authority:
we will prove ourselves----"
"You will prove yourselves arrant knaves, I doubt not," answered the baron;
"but, villains, you shall be more grievously bruised by me than ever was
the sheriff by my daughter (a pretty tale truly!), if you do not forthwith
avoid my territory."
By this time the baron's men had flocked to the battlements,
with long-bows and cross-bows, slings and stones,
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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 Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: LIFE, on the borders of which they stood, leaning upon each other,
trembling and illuminated, like two children standing under shelter in
presence of a conflagration, That Life offered no lodgment to the
senses.
The ideas they used to interpret their vision to themselves were to
the things seen what the visible senses of a man are to his soul, the
material covering of a divine essence.
The departing SPIRIT was above them, shedding incense without odor,
melody without sound. About them, where they stood, were neither
surfaces, nor angles, nor atmosphere.
They dared neither question him nor contemplate him; they stood in the
Seraphita |
