| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: Brothers at enmity' is a rose-water tragedy beside that of a mother
and daughter placed as we then were. But I braved them all, my mother,
my husband, the world, by public coquetries which society talked of,--
and heaven knows how it talked! You can see, my friend, how the men
with whom I was accused of folly were to me the dagger with which to
stab my enemies. Thinking only of my vengeance, I did not see or feel
the wounds I was inflicting on myself. Innocent as a child, I was
thought a wicked woman, the worst of women, and I knew nothing of it!
The world is very foolish, very blind, very ignorant; it can penetrate
no secrets but those which amuse it and serve its malice: noble
things, great things, it puts its hand before its eyes to avoid
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: about such words as "tufa" and "scilica" with careless
freedom.
When I mentioned I was from Scotland, "My old country," he
said; "my old country" - with a smiling look and a tone of
real affection in his voice. I was mightily surprised, for
he was obviously Scandinavian, and begged him to explain. It
seemed he had learned his English and done nearly all his
sailing in Scotch ships. "Out of Glasgow," said he, "or
Greenock; but that's all the same - they all hail from
Glasgow." And he was so pleased with me for being a Scotsman,
and his adopted compatriot, that he made me a present of a
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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 Georgics by Virgil: Lest weeds arise, or dust a passage win
Splitting the surface, then a thousand plagues
Make sport of it: oft builds the tiny mouse
Her home, and plants her granary, underground,
Or burrow for their bed the purblind moles,
Or toad is found in hollows, and all the swarm
Of earth's unsightly creatures; or a huge
Corn-heap the weevil plunders, and the ant,
Fearful of coming age and penury.
Mark too, what time the walnut in the woods
With ample bloom shall clothe her, and bow down
Georgics |
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 Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: shadow of the mighty tree; and she will hear the peacocks screaming
in the dusk and the wind blowing in the palms; and she will think of
her father sitting there alone. - R. L. S.]
FORTH from her land to mine she goes,
The island maid, the island rose,
Light of heart and bright of face:
The daughter of a double race.
Her islands here, in Southern sun,
Shall mourn their Kaiulani gone,
And I, in her dear banyan shade,
Look vainly for my little maid.
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