| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: Crept to the gate, and open'd it, and closed,
As lightly as a sick man's chamber-door,
Behind him, and came out upon the waste.
And there he would have knelt, but that his knees
Were feeble, so that falling prone he dug
His fingers into the wet earth, and pray'd.
`Too hard to bear! why did they take me hence?
O God Almighty, blessed Saviour, Thou
That didst uphold me on my lonely isle,
Uphold me, Father, in my loneliness
A little longer! aid me, give me strength
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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 Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Words of the past that shook the old man's cheek
Like dead, remembered footsteps on old floors.
And then there were the leaves that plagued him so!
The brown, thin leaves that on the stones outside
Skipped with a freezing whisper. Now and then
They stopped, and stayed there -- just to let him know
How dead they were; but if the old man cried,
They fluttered off like withered souls of men.
Aaron Stark
Withal a meagre man was Aaron Stark, --
Cursed and unkempt, shrewd, shrivelled, and morose.
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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 Paz by Honore de Balzac: then be parted; and though I had every intention of always looking out
for him, I knew I might sometime or other forget to provide for him.
In short, my dear angel, I wanted to spare him the pain and
mortification of having to ask me for money, or of having to hunt me
up if he got into distress. SO, one morning, after breakfast, when we
were sitting with our feet on the andirons smoking pipes, I produced,
--with the utmost precaution, for I saw him look at me uneasily,--a
certificate of the Funds payable to bearer for a certain sum of money
a year."
Clementine jumped up and went and seated herself on Adam's knee, put
her arms round his neck, and kissed him. "Dear treasure!" she said,
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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 Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: life, possessing their minds undisturbed and clear of all
confusion. After their many labours after godliness, one day
Barlaam called to him his spiritual son, whom he had begotten
through the Gospel, and opened his mouth to discourse of
spiritual things, saying, "Long ago, dearly beloved Ioasaph, was
it destined that thou shouldest dwell in this wilderness; and, in
answer to my prayer for thee, Christ promised me that I should
see it before the ending of my life. I have seen my desire: I
have seen thee severed from the world and the concerns of the
world, united to Christ, thy mind never wavering, and come to the
measure of the perfection of his fulness. Now therefore as the
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