| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: But even then I could not do other than hate de Garcia, no, nor can
I to this hour, and after all it was natural that I should desire
vengeance on the murderer of my mother though the wreaking of it
had best been left in another Hand.
Without the little chancel door I met Lily, who was lingering there
knowing me to be within, and we spoke together.
'Lily,' I said, 'I would ask you something. After all that has
been, will you still take me for your husband, unworthy as I am?'
'I promised so to do many a year ago, Thomas,' she answered,
speaking very low, and blushing like the wild rose that bloomed
upon a grave beside her, 'and I have never changed my mind. Indeed
Montezuma's Daughter |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
I enclose a bill for the medallion; have been trying to find your
letter, quite in vain, and therefore must request you to pay for
the bronze letters yourself and let me know the damage.
R. L. S.
Letter: TO J. HORNE STEVENSON
VAILIMA, SAMOA, NOVEMBER 5TH, 1893.
MY DEAR STEVENSON, - A thousand thanks for your voluminous and
delightful collections. Baxter - so soon as it is ready - will let
you see a proof of my introduction, which is only sent out as a
sprat to catch whales. And you will find I have a good deal of
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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 Odyssey by Homer: gracious, and about her waist she cast a fair golden
girdle, and a veil withal upon her head. Then she
considered of the sending of Odysseus, the great-hearted.
She gave him a great axe, fitted to his grasp, an axe of
bronze double-edged, and with a goodly handle of olive wood
fastened well. Next she gave him a polished adze, and she
led the way to the border of the isle where tall trees
grew, alder and poplar, and pine that reacheth unto heaven,
seasoned long since and sere, that might lightly float for
him. Now after she had shown him where the tall trees grew,
Calypso, the fair goddess, departed homeward. And he set to
The Odyssey |
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 A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: leaves the child with an impression that children who poke fun at old
gentlemen and make rude remarks about bald heads are not nice
children, which is a highly desirable impression, and just as much as
a child is capable of receiving from the story. When a story is about
God and a child, children take God for granted and criticize the
child. Adults do the opposite, and are thereby led to talk great
nonsense about the bad effect of Bible stories on infants.
But let no one think that a child or anyone else can learn religion
from a teacher or a book or by any academic process whatever. It is
only by an unfettered access to the whole body of Fine Art: that is,
to the whole body of inspired revelation, that we can build up that
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