| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: The ills that were not, grew to faults assur'd,
And brought to medicine a healthful state
Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cur'd;
But thence I learn and find the lesson true,
Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you.
CXIX
What potions have I drunk of Siren tears,
Distill'd from limbecks foul as hell within,
Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears,
Still losing when I saw myself to win!
What wretched errors hath my heart committed,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Complete Poems of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Alden:
"Come, you must not be idle; if I am a pattern for housewives,
Show yourself equally worthy of being the model of husbands.
Hold this skein on your hands, while I wind it, ready for
knitting;
Then who knows but hereafter, when fashions have changed and the
manners,
Fathers may talk to their sons of the good old times of John
Alden!"
Thus, with a jest and a laugh, the skein on his hands she
adjusted,
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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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: and rubbed himself round and round the bed-post.
And the tiny little girl never saw the big house, or the big soft
white cat any more.
And now when it happened that she remembered something, great grown
people said: ``No, no, Bessie Bell, there is nothing in the world
like that.''
So she just wondered and remembered, and almost forgot what it was
that she did remember.
* * *
* *
*
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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 Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: trap-door, and is opened by pressing a lever. The aviator has
merely to depress this pedal with his foot, when the box is
opened and the whole of the contents are released. The fall at
first is somewhat erratic, but this is an advantage, as it
enables the darts to scatter and to cover a wide area. As the
rotary motion of the arrows increases during the fall, the direct
line of flight becomes more pronounced until at last they assume
a vertical direction free from all wobbling, so that when they
alight upon the target they are quite plumb.
When launched from a height they strike the objective with
terrific force, and will readily penetrate a soldier's helmet and
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