| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: loving than Almighty God, who certainly does not do everything for
the sons of men, but forces them to labour for themselves by bitter
need, and after a most Spartan mode of education; who allows them to
burn their hands as often as they are foolish enough to put them
into the fire; and to be filled with the fruits of their own folly,
even though the folly be one of necessary ignorance; treating them
with that seeming neglect which is after all the most provident
care, because by it alone can men be trained to experience, self-
help, science, true humanity; and so become not tolerably harmless
dolls, but men and women worthy of the name; with
The reason firm, the temperate will,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: the leaves lie open fully and freely, as if tempting you to read on,
and you handle them without fear of their parting from the back.
To look at the "tooling," too, is a pleasure, for careful thought,
combined with artistic skill, is everywhere apparent. You open
the cover and find the same loving attention inside that has been
given to the outside, all the workmanship being true and thorough.
Indeed, so conservative is a good binding, that many a worthless
book has had an honoured old age, simply out of respect to its
outward aspect; and many a real treasure has come to a degraded end
and premature death through the unsightliness of its outward case
and the irreparable damage done to it in binding.
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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 At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: substances at that distance beneath the surface.
Another finds that the phenomena of precession and
nutation require that the earth, if not entirely solid,
must at least have a shell not less than eight hundred
to a thousand miles in thickness. So there you are.
You may take your choice."
"And if it should prove solid?" I asked.
"It will be all the same to us in the end, David,"
replied Perry. "At the best our fuel will suffice to carry
us but three or four days, while our atmosphere cannot
last to exceed three. Neither, then, is sufficient to bear
At the Earth's Core |
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 Just Folks by Edgar A. Guest: And taste once more the old delight of days when all our skies were blue.
The Day of Days
A year is filled with glad events:
The best is Christmas day,
But every holiday presents
Its special round of play,
And looking back on boyhood now
And all the charms it knew,
One day, above the rest, somehow,
Seems brightest in review.
That day was finest, I believe;
Just Folks |
