| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: Till the morning appears in the skies.'
'No, no, let us play, for it is yet day,
And we cannot go to sleep;
Besides, in the sky the little birds fly,
And the hills are all covered with sheep.'
'Well, well, go and play till the light fades away,
And then go home to bed.'
The little ones leaped, and shouted, and laughed,
And all the hills echoed.
INFANT JOY
'I have no name;
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: musical boxes, little men with nodding heads, books filled with
pictures, weapons of price from all quarters of the world, and the
most elegant puzzles to entertain the leisure of a solitary man.
And as no one would care to live in such chambers, only to walk
through and view them, the balconies were made so broad that a
whole town might have lived upon them in delight; and Keawe knew
not which to prefer, whether the back porch, where you got the land
breeze, and looked upon the orchards and the flowers, or the front
balcony, where you could drink the wind of the sea, and look down
the steep wall of the mountain and see the HALL going by once a
week or so between Hookena and the hills of Pele, or the schooners
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: round the base of the rock. We ourselves continued our way over it;
but Pauline took my arm. Our guide hastened his steps in order to meet
us on the other side, where the two paths came together again.
This circumstance excited our curiosity, which soon became so keen
that our hearts were beating as if with a sense of fear. In spite of
the heat of the day, and the fatigue caused by toiling through the
sand, our souls were still surrendered to the softness unspeakable of
our exquisite ecstasy. They were filled with that pure pleasure which
cannot be described unless we liken it to the joy of listening to
enchanting music, Mozart's "Audiamo mio ben," for instance. When two
pure sentiments blend together, what is that but two sweet voices
|
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 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: determinations to be taken at the next great assembly: and often
upon the various excellences of poetry. I may add, without
vanity, that my presence often gave them sufficient matter for
discourse, because it afforded my master an occasion of letting
his friends into the history of me and my country, upon which
they were all pleased to descant, in a manner not very
advantageous to humankind: and for that reason I shall not
repeat what they said; only I may be allowed to observe, that his
honour, to my great admiration, appeared to understand the nature
of YAHOOS much better than myself. He went through all our vices
and follies, and discovered many, which I had never mentioned to
Gulliver's Travels |
