| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cromwell by William Shakespeare: GARDINER.
This is no place to reckon up your crime;
Your Dove-like looks were viewed with serpent's eyes.
CROMWELL.
With serpent's eyes, indeed, by thine they were;
But Gardiner do thy worst, I fear thee not.
My faith, compared with thine, as much shall pass,
As doth the Diamond excel the glass.
Attached of treason, no accusers by!
Indeed, what tongue dares speak so foul a lie?
NORFOLK.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: whole family living together on such pleasant terms - you may
surely be satisfied, and take the rest for granted; or, what is a
great deal better, boldly make up your mind that you can do
perfectly well without the rest; and that ten thousand bad traits
cannot make a single good one any the less good.
It was getting late. M. Hector lit a stable lantern and went off
to his cart for some arrangements; and my young gentleman proceeded
to divest himself of the better part of his raiment, and play
gymnastics on his mother's lap, and thence on to the floor, with
accompaniment of laughter.
'Are you going to sleep alone?' asked the servant lass.
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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 Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: good unto them, and thus thou wilt reap in return their speaking
good of thee.
LI
When thou goest in to any of the great, remember that
Another from above sees what is passing, and that thou shouldst
please Him rather than man. He therefore asks thee:--
"In the Schools, what didst thou call exile, imprisionment,
bonds, death and shame?"
"I called them things indifferent."
"What then dost thou call them now? Are they at all
changed?"
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
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 The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: . . .
"The main thing, and the thing which such people as he do not
understand," rejoined the lady, "is that only love consecrates
marriage, and that the real marriage is that which is consecrated
by love."
The clerk listened and smiled, with the air of one accustomed to
store in his memory all intelligent conversation that he hears,
in order to make use of it afterwards.
"But what is this love that consecrates marriage?" said,
suddenly, the voice of the nervous and taciturn gentleman, who,
unnoticed by us, had approached.
The Kreutzer Sonata |
