| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: their lives, was now shouted down the streets with consternation,
startling sleepers from their dreams, and awaking them to a sense
of peril. Thereon they rose promptly from their beds, and
hastily throwing on some clothes, rushed out to rescue their
neighbours' property from destruction, and subdue the threatening
conflagration.
And speedily was heard the tramp of many feet hurrying to the
scene, and the shouting of anxious voices crying for help; and
presently the bells of St. Margaret's church close by, ringing
with wild uneven peals through the darkness, aroused all far and
near to knowledge of the disaster. For already the flames,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White: That has gone to the bad,
Which makes poor old Sammy
Feel pretty, damn sad,
For that gain it shoots high,
And that gun it shoots low,
And it wabbles about
Like a bucking bronco!"
Senor Johnson turned and struck spurs to his willing pony.
CHAPTER TEN
THE DISCOVERY
Senor Buck Johnson loped quickly back toward the home ranch, his
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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 The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: me to the heart, when I saw my labours, which had cost me so much
thought and watching, bawl'd about by common hawkers, which I
only intended for the weighty consideration of the gravest
persons. This prejudiced the world so much at first, that several
of my friends had the assurance to ask me whether I were in jest?
To which I only answered coldly, that the event would shew. But
it is the talent of our age and nation, to turn things of the
greatest importance into ridicule. When the end of the year had
verified all my predictions, out comes Mr. Partridge's almanack,
disputing the point of his death; so that I am employed, like the
general who was forced to kill his enemies twice over, whom 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 Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: of omnipotence sounding the cries of victory in chords of which a
single one would shake the earth, but which are lost in the spaces of
a world that hath neither east nor west.
"Canst thou comprehend, my poor beloved Tried-one, that unless the
torpor and the veils of sleep had wrapped thee, such sights would rend
and bear away thy mind as the whirlwinds rend and carry into space the
feeble sails, depriving thee forever of thy reason? Dost thou
understand that the Soul itself, raised to its utmost power can
scarcely endure in dreams the burning communications of the Spirit?
"Speed thy way through the luminous spheres; behold, admire, hasten!
Flying thus thou canst pause or advance without weariness. Like other
Seraphita |
