| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: me with sadness and grief, and in exposing my health and my life
to his most unreasonable caprice, and in making me pass the best
of my days in an unparalleled slavery, since heaven had been
pleased to make him my master, I should have endeavoured to allay
and qualify my misfortunes by my sighs and tears. But when I saw
that by his incredible dilapidations and profuseness, my son, who
might have been the richest gentleman in France, was in danger of
being the poorest, there was no resisting the force of nature;
and motherly love carried it over all other considerations of
duty, or the moderation I proposed to myself. I saw every day
vast sums go away: moveables of inestimable prices, offices, and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Poems of William Blake by William Blake: Art thou a Worm? image of weakness. art thou but a Worm?
I see thee like an infant wrapped in the Lillys leaf;
Ah weep not little voice, thou can'st not speak, but thou can'st weep:
Is this a Worm? I see they lay helpless & naked: weeping
And none to answer, none to cherish thee with mothers smiles.
The Clod of Clay heard the Worms voice & rais'd her pitying head:
She bowd over the weeping infant, and her life exhald
In milky fondness, then on Thel she fix'd her humble eyes
O beauty of the vales of Har, we live not for ourselves,
Thou seest me the meanest thing, and so I am indeed:
My bosom of itself is cold, and of itself is dark,
Poems of William Blake |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: I am speaking; and during all this time and through so many changes, there
has never been any considerable accumulation of the soil coming down from
the mountains, as in other places, but the earth has fallen away all round
and sunk out of sight. The consequence is, that in comparison of what then
was, there are remaining only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be
called, as in the case of small islands, all the richer and softer parts of
the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the land being left.
But in the primitive state of the country, its mountains were high hills
covered with soil, and the plains, as they are termed by us, of Phelleus
were full of rich earth, and there was abundance of wood in the mountains.
Of this last the traces still remain, for although some of the mountains
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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 Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: Marilla did. Then she went out and raked the yard.
When dinner was ready she went to the stairs and called Anne. A
tear-stained face appeared, looking tragically over the banisters.
"Come down to your dinner, Anne."
"I don't want any dinner, Marilla," said Anne, sobbingly. "I
couldn't eat anything. My heart is broken. You'll feel remorse
of conscience someday, I expect, for breaking it, Marilla, but I
forgive you. Remember when the time comes that I forgive you.
But please don't ask me to eat anything, especially boiled pork
and greens. Boiled pork and greens are so unromantic when one is
in affliction."
Anne of Green Gables |
