| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: Shall stain thy earth with that which thou would stain,
My poor chaste blood. Swear, Edward, swear,
Or I will strike and die before thee here.
KING EDWARD.
Even by that power I swear, that gives me now
The power to be ashamed of my self,
I never mean to part my lips again
In any words that tends to such a suit.
Arise, true English Lady, whom our Isle
May better boast of than ever Roman might
Of her, whose ransacked treasury hath taskt
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: contriving. I had beaten hemp, which there grows wild, and made
of it a sort of ticking; this I filled with the feathers of
several birds I had taken with springes made of YAHOOS' hairs,
and were excellent food. I had worked two chairs with my knife,
the sorrel nag helping me in the grosser and more laborious part.
When my clothes were worn to rags, I made myself others with the
skins of rabbits, and of a certain beautiful animal, about the
same size, called NNUHNOH, the skin of which is covered with a
fine down. Of these I also made very tolerable stockings. I
soled my shoes with wood, which I cut from a tree, and fitted to
the upper-leather; and when this was worn out, I supplied it with
Gulliver's Travels |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: "If you had a really cross baby around you'd know how good and
reasonable Billy is," she flamed, torn by the little sobs.
"You get out to that kitchen," he ordered, more openly angry than
Rose had ever seen him. "I've had enough of this talk, do you
hear, and enough of this way of doing. Don't you set foot in here
again till supper's over. I've had quite enough, too, of jumping
up and down to wait on myself."
Confusedly, Rose thought of her countless hours of lost sleep,
her even yet unrecovered strength, the enormous readjustment of
her own life in her sincere efforts to do her best by the whole
household, her joyous acceptance of all the perpetual self-denial
|
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 Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: small to climb these trees."
"It's something smaller than Joey, miss. Whisht now, and see if she's not up
to mischief this minute."
Tattine's little black-and-white kitten, whose home was in the barn, had been
frisking about her feet during all the raking, but as the raking came under
the apple-trees, other thoughts came into her little black-and-white head, and
there she was stealthily clawing her way up the nearest tree. Tattine stood
aghast, but Patrick's "whisht" kept her still for a moment, while the cat made
its way along one of the branches. Tattine knowing well the particular nest
she was seeking, made one bound for her with her rake, and with such a scream
as certainly to scare little Black-and-white out of at least one of the nine
|
