| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: Lord Goring finding that the enemy had set the suburbs on fire
right against the Hythe, ordered the remaining houses, which were
empty of inhabitants, from whence their musketeer fired against the
town, to be burned also.
31st. A body of foot sallied out at midnight, to discover what the
enemy were doing at a place where they thought a new fort raising;
they fell in among the workmen, and put them to flight, cut in
pieces several of the guard, and brought in the officer who
commanded them prisoner.
August 2nd. The town was now in a miserable condition: the
soldiers searched and rifled the houses of the inhabitants for
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Koran: two gardens of grapes, and surrounded them with palms, and put corn
between the two. Each of the two gardens brought forth its food and
did not fail in aught. And we caused a river to gush forth, amidst
them; and he had fruit, and said unto his fellow, who was his
next-door neighbour, 'I am more wealthy than thee, and mightier of
household.'
And he went in unto his garden, having wronged himself: said he,
'I do not think that this will ever disappear; and I do not think that
the hour is imminent; and if even I be sent back unto my Lord, I shall
find a better one than it in exchange.'
Said unto him his fellow, who was his next-door neighbour, 'Thou
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: much for you to-day. There are a couple of nobles to pay the
doctor."
"O Sir Richard, gratias tibi et Domino! but the boy hits shrewdly
hard. Nevertheless I have repaid him in inverse kind, and set him
an imposition, to learn me one of Phaedrus his fables, Sir Richard,
if you do not think it too much."
"Which, then? The one about the man who brought up a lion's cub,
and was eaten by him in play at last?"
"Ah, Sir Richard! you have always a merry wit. But, indeed, the
boy is a brave boy, and a quick boy, Sir Richard, but more
forgetful than Lethe; and--sapienti loquor--it were well if he were
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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: "Therefore Prayer, issuing from so many trials, is the consummation of
all truths, all powers, all feelings. Fruit of the laborious,
progressive, continued development of natural properties and faculties
vitalized anew by the divine breath of the Word, Prayer has occult
activity; it is the final worship--not the material worship of images,
nor the spiritual worship of formulas, but the worship of the Divine
World. We say no prayers,--prayer forms within us; it is a faculty
which acts of itself; it has attained a way of action which lifts it
outside of forms; it links the soul to God, with whom we unite as the
root of the tree unites with the soil; our veins draw life from the
principle of life, and we live by the life of the universe. Prayer
Seraphita |
