| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cromwell by William Shakespeare: WOLSEY.
My friend, come nearer; have you been a traveller?
CROMWELL.
My Lord, I have added to my knowledge the low Countries,
France, Spain, Germany, and Italy:
And though small gain of profit I did find,
Yet did it please my eye, content my mind.
WOLSEY.
What do you think of the several states
And princes' Courts as you have travelled?
CROMWELL.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: before all worlds, without beginning, who was in the beginning,
and was with God even the Father, and was God, he, I say,
condescended toward his servants with an unspeakable and
incomprehensible condescension; and, being perfect God, was made
perfect man, of the Holy Ghost, and of Mary the Holy Virgin and
Mother of God, not of the seed of man, nor of the will of man,
nor by carnal union, being conceived in the Virgin's undefiled
womb, of the Holy Ghost; as also, before his conception, one of
the Archangels was sent to announce to the Virgin that miraculous
conception and ineffable birth. For without seed was the Son of
God conceived of the Holy Ghost, and in the Virgin's womb he
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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 Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: Not as wise as Sweep?
Not they. Sweep will not take away Victor's bone, though he is
ten times as big as Victor, and could kill him in a moment; and
when he catches a rabbit, does he eat it himself?
Of course not; he brings it and lays it down at our feet.
Because he likes better to do his duty, and be praised for it,
than to eat the rabbit, dearly as he longs to eat it.
But he is only an animal. Who taught him to be generous, and
dutiful, and faithful?
Who, indeed! Not we, you know that, for he has grown up with us
since a puppy. How he learnt it, and his parents before him, is a
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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 Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Either when sun, after his diurnal course,
Hath walked the ultimate regions of the sky
And wearily hath panted forth his fires,
Shivered by their long journeying and wasted
By traversing the multitudinous air,
Or else because the self-same force that drave
His orb along above the lands compels
Him then to turn his course beneath the lands.
Matuta also at a fixed hour
Spreadeth the roseate morning out along
The coasts of heaven and deploys the light,
Of The Nature of Things |
