| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: and I will try to prove my gratitude for your goodness, by doing my
utmost to promote the marriage of the Burgundian heiress with
Monseigneur. She will bring you a noble treasure, not of money, but of
lands, which will round out the glory of your crown."
"There, there, Dutchman, you are trying to hoodwink me," said the
king, with frowning brows, "or else you have already done so."
"Sire! can you doubt my devotion? you, who are the only man I love!"
"All that is talk," returned the king, looking the other in the eyes.
"You need not have waited till this moment to do me that service. You
are selling me your influence--Pasques-Dieu! to me, Louis XI.! Are you
the master, and am I your servant?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: (Ah, city crowned by God, discrowned by man!)
The hated flag of red and white and green.
When was thy glory! when in search for power
Thine eagles flew to greet the double sun,
And the wild nations shuddered at thy rod?
Nay, but thy glory tarried for this hour,
When pilgrims kneel before the Holy One,
The prisoned shepherd of the Church of God.
MONTRE MARIO
E TENEBRIS
Come down, O Christ, and help me! reach Thy hand,
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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 Lin McLean by Owen Wister: around on the street, don't yu' try any talk, for I'd be liable to close
your jaw up, and maybe yu'd have more of a job explainin' that to your
crowd than you've had makin' me see what kind of a man I've got for a
brother."
Frank found himself standing alone before any reply to these sentences
had occurred to him. He walked slowly to his club, where a friend joked
him on his glumness.
Lin made a sore failure of amusing himself that night; and in the bright,
hot morning he got into the train for Swampscott. At the graveyard he saw
a woman lay a bunch of flowers on a mound and kneel, weeping.
"There ain't nobody to do that for this one," thought the cow-puncher,
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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 Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: affirms the contrary, if the act appear to you unfit even to be mentioned.
Or do you think that Orestes, had he been in his senses and knew what was
best for him to do, would ever have dared to venture on such a crime?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly not.
SOCRATES: Nor would any one else, I fancy?
ALCIBIADES: No.
SOCRATES: That ignorance is bad then, it would appear, which is of the
best and does not know what is best?
ALCIBIADES: So I think, at least.
SOCRATES: And both to the person who is ignorant and everybody else?
ALCIBIADES: Yes.
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