| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: the trees, in front of the door of which a sign hung pendant,
bearing the picture of a blue boar. Here he drew rein and called
loudly for a pottle of Rhenish wine to be brought him, for stout
country ale was too coarse a drink for this young gentleman.
Five lusty fellows sat upon the bench beneath the pleasant shade
of the wide-spreading oak in front of the inn door, drinking ale
and beer, and all stared amain at this fair and gallant lad.
Two of the stoutest of them were clothed in Lincoln green,
and a great heavy oaken staff leaned against the gnarled oak tree
trunk beside each fellow.
The landlord came and brought a pottle of wine and a long narrow glass
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
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 Walking by Henry David Thoreau: certainly decide for the swamp. How vain, then, have been all
your labors, citizens, for me!
My spirits infallibly rise in proportion to the outward
dreariness. Give me the ocean, the desert, or the wilderness! In
the desert, pure air and solitude compensate for want of moisture
and fertility. The traveler Burton says of it--"Your MORALE
improves; you become frank and cordial, hospitable and
single-minded.... In the desert, spirituous liquors excite only
disgust. There is a keen enjoyment in a mere animal existence."
They who have been traveling long on the steppes of Tartary say,
"On re-entering cultivated lands, the agitation, perplexity, and
Walking |
