| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Had made his goodly cousin, Tristram, knight,
And, for himself was of the greater state,
Being a king, he trusted his liege-lord
Would yield him this large honour all the more;
So prayed him well to accept this cloth of gold,
In token of true heart and felty.
Then Arthur cried to rend the cloth, to rend
In pieces, and so cast it on the hearth.
An oak-tree smouldered there. 'The goodly knight!
What! shall the shield of Mark stand among these?'
For, midway down the side of that long hall
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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 The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: man upon the boards. Hardly had she risen with a movement of
involuntary surprise, when the count stood before her. She gave a cry,
but endeavored instantly to undo that involuntary wrong by going up to
him and offering her forehead for a kiss.
"Why not have sent me notice of your return?" she said.
"My reception would have been more cordial, but less frank," he
answered bitterly.
Suddenly he saw the child. The evident health in which he found it
wrung from him a gesture of surprise mingled with fury. But he
repressed his anger, and began to smile.
"I bring good news," he said. "I have received the governorship of
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