| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: of home manufacture and my own bonnet, and started for church. I
had walked but a few paces when the consciousness of being *free*
and *alone* struck me. I halted, looked about me, and concluded
that I would not go to church, but walk into the fields. I had no
knowledge of the whereabouts of the fields; but I walked straight
forward, and after a while came upon some barren fields, cropping
with coarse rocks, along which ran a narrow road. I turned into it,
and soon saw beyond the rough coast the blue ring of the ocean--
vast, silent, and splendid in the sunshine. I found a seat on the
ruins of an old stone-wall, among some tangled bushes and briers.
There being no Aunt Eliza to pull through the surf, and no animated
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: met with anywhere, the Greeks called him Calanus. He is said to
have shown Alexander an instructive emblem of government, which
was this. He threw a dry shriveled hide upon the ground, and trod
upon the edges of it. The skin when it was pressed in one place,
still rose up in another, wheresoever he trod round about it, till
he set his foot in the middle, which made all the parts lie even
and quiet. The meaning of this similitude being that he ought to
reside most in the middle of his empire, and not spend too much
time on the borders of it.
His voyage down the rivers took up seven months' time, and when he
came to the sea, he sailed to an island which he himself called
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: delicious delicacies placed before her. The arrival of the
after-the-theater crowd awoke her from her abstraction, and she
accepted Clymer's invitation to dance with alacrity. When they
returned to the table she discovered that Margaret Brewster and
her father had also joined the dancers.
Barbara watched them while keeping up a disjointed conversation
with Clymer, whose absentminded remarks finally drew Barbara's
attention, and she wondered what had come over the generally
entertaining banker. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him the
reason for his distrait manner when her thoughts were diverted by
his next remark.
The Red Seal |
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 Confessio Amantis by John Gower: Bot if somwho the flamme stanche;
And so to speke upon this branche,
Which proud Envie hath mad to springe,
Of Scisme, causeth forto bringe
This newe Secte of Lollardie,
And also many an heresie 350
Among the clerkes in hemselve.
It were betre dike and delve
And stonde upon the ryhte feith,
Than knowe al that the bible seith
And erre as somme clerkes do.
Confessio Amantis |
