| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: And out of bed he jumped, and read in his book, and now all at once he knew
his whole lesson. And the old washerwoman popped her head in at the door,
nodded to him friendly, and said, "Thanks, many thanks, my good child, for
your help! May the good ever-loving God fulfil your loveliest dream!"
Little Tukey did not at all know what he had dreamed, but the loving God knew
it.
THE NAUGHTY BOY
Along time ago, there lived an old poet, a thoroughly kind old poet. As he was
sitting one evening in his room, a dreadful storm arose without, and the rain
streamed down from heaven; but the old poet sat warm and comfortable in his
chimney-comer, where the fire blazed and the roasting apple hissed.
Fairy Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: gold, from precipice to precipice, with the double arch of a broad
purple rainbow stretched across it, flushing and fading alternately
in the wreaths of spray.
"Ah!" said Gluck aloud, after he had looked at it for a
little while, "if that river were really all gold, what a nice
thing it would be."
"No, it wouldn't, Gluck," said a clear, metallic voice close
at his ear.
"Bless me, what's that?" exclaimed Gluck, jumping up. There
was nobody there. He looked round the room and under the table and
a great many times behind him, but there was certainly nobody there,
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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 Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: of Alta California, the peculiar province of the
Franciscans--the Jesuits having been the first to
invade Baja California, and with little success--
numbered about two thousand, the Christianized
Indians about twenty thousand. There were nine-
teen Missions and four Presidial districts--San
Diego, close to the border of Baja California, Santa
Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco. Each Mis-
sion had an immense grant of land, or rancho--
generally fifteen miles square--for the raising of
live stock, agricultural necessities, and the grape.
Rezanov |
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 Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: for some days diverted from impatience by the novelty of the place.
The turrets overlooked the country to a great distance, and
afforded a view of many windings of the stream. In the day I
wandered from one place to another, as the course of the sun varied
the splendour of the prospect, and saw many things which I had
never seen before. The crocodiles and river-horses are common in
this unpeopled region; and I often looked upon them with terror,
though I knew they could not hurt me. For some time I expected to
see mermaids and tritons, which, as Imlac has told me, the European
travellers have stationed in the Nile; but no such beings ever
appeared, and the Arab, when I inquired after them, laughed at my
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