| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: forth, red-hot, from the raging furnace.
"Hold! hold!" cried he, with a tremulous attempt to laugh; for he
was ashamed of his fears, although they overmastered him. "Don't,
for mercy's sake, bring out your Devil now!"
"Man!" sternly replied Ethan Brand, "what need have I of the
Devil? I have left him behind me, on my track. It is with such
half-way sinners as you that he busies himself. Fear not, because
I open the door. I do but act by old custom, and am going to trim
your fire, like a lime-burner, as I was once."
He stirred the vast coals, thrust in more wood, and bent forward
to gaze into the hollow prison-house of the fire, regardless of
The Snow Image |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Heap O' Livin' by Edgar A. Guest: come again.
Oh, the world is full of kindness, thronged with
men who want to be
Of some service to their neighbors and they'll
run to you or me
When we're needing their assistance if we've
lived upon the square,
But they'll spurn us in our trouble if we've
always been unfair.
It's an easy world to live in; all you really need
to do
A Heap O' Livin' |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: the uprising, groping their way, were about to come into contact.
The necessity was the same for both. The only possible issue
thenceforth was to emerge thence killed or conquerors. A situation
so extreme, an obscurity so powerful, that the most timid felt
themselves seized with resolution, and the most daring with terror.
Moreover, on both sides, the fury, the rage, and the determination
were equal. For the one party, to advance meant death, and no
one dreamed of retreating; for the other, to remain meant death,
and no one dreamed of flight.
It was indispensable that all should be ended on the following day,
that triumph should rest either here or there, that the insurrection
Les Miserables |
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 The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: understand, that his name was Elshender the Recluse; but his
popular epithet soon came to be Canny Elshie, or the Wise Wight
of Mucklestane-Moor. Some extended their queries beyond their
bodily complaints, and requested advice upon other matters, which
he delivered with an oracular shrewdness that greatly confirmed
the opinion of his possessing preternatural skill. The querists
usually left some offering upon a stone, at a distance from his
dwelling; if it was money, or any article which did not suit him
to accept, he either threw it away, or suffered it to remain
where it was without making use of it. On all occasions his
manners were rude and unsocial; and his words, in number, just
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