| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: "She was my first wife, but I beg you not to speak of her to me or to
anyone else, for I cannot bear to hear her name. Perhaps you will learn
all about her one day." Then, to my grief and astonishment, he broke
into something like a sob and abruptly left the room.
After reading the record of this Marie I can well understand why he was
so moved. I print it practically as it left his hands.
There are other MSS. also, one of which, headed "Child of Storm,"
relates the moving history of a beautiful and, I fear I must add, wicked
Zulu girl named Mameena who did much evil in her day and went
unrepentant from the world.
Another, amongst other things, tells the secret story of the causes of
Marie |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: matted together and pressed down flat by the weight of the winter's
snow, until finally, somewhere about the level of four thousand
feet above the sea, even this bold climber gives out, and the
weather-beaten rocks of the summit are clad only with mosses and
Alpine plants.
Thus it is with mountains, as perhaps with men, a mark of superior
dignity to be naturally bald.
Ampersand, falling short by a thousand feet of the needful height,
cannot claim this distinction. But what Nature has denied, human
labour has supplied. Under the direction of the Adirondack Survey,
some years ago, several acres of trees were cut from the summit;
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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 Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: That his foul thoughts might compass his fair fair,
And they would stand auspicious to the hour,
Even there he starts:--quoth he, 'I must de-flower;
The powers to whom I pray abhor this fact,
How can they then assist me in the act?
'Then Love and Fortune be my gods, my guide!
My will is back'd with resolution:
Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried,
The blackest sin is clear'd with absolution;
Against love's fire fear's frost hath dissolution.
The eye of heaven is out, and misty night
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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 Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: And tamely capped the passing Squire.
At length, intolerant of trammels -
Wild as the wild Bithynian camels,
Wild as the wild sea-eagles - Bob
His widowed dam contrives to rob,
And thus with great originality
Effectuates his personality.
Thenceforth his terror-haunted flight
He follows through the starry night;
And with the early morning breeze,
Behold him on the azure seas.
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