| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran: Say, 'If ye hide that which is in your breasts, or if ye show it,
God knows it: He knows what is in the heavens and what is in the
earth, for God is mighty over all.'
The day that every soul shall find what it has done of good
present before it; and what it has done of evil, it would fain that
there were between itself and that a wide interval. 'God bids you
beware of Himself, but God is gentle with His servants.'
Say, 'If ye would love God then follow me, and God will love you and
forgive you your sins, for God is forgiving and merciful.'
Say, 'Obey God and the Apostle; but if ye turn your backs God
loves not misbelievers.'
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: with him great stones and the rocks also therewith, and that great
plenty. And anon, as they be entered into the Gravelly Sea, they
be seen no more, but lost for evermore. And in those three days
that that river runneth, no man dare enter into it; but in the
other days men dare enter well enough.
Also beyond that flome, more upward to the deserts, is a great
plain all gravelly, between the mountains. And in that plain,
every day at the sun-rising, begin to grow small trees, and they
grow till mid-day, bearing fruit; but no man dare take of that
fruit, for it is a thing of faerie. And after mid-day, they
decrease and enter again into the earth, so that at the going down
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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 An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: Jansenius in the same tone. Trefusis involuntarily looked at the
door through which he had lately passed. Then, recovering
himself, he said quietly:
"It does not matter. She can't hear us."
Before Jansenius could reply his wife hurried upstairs, caught
him by the arm, and said, "Don't speak to him, John. And you,"
she added, to Trefusis, "WILL you begone?"
"What!" he said, looking cynically at her. "Without my dead!
Without my property! Well, be it so."
"What do you know of the feelings of a respectable man?"
persisted Jansenius, breaking out again in spite of his wife.
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: them, and their astonishment, he said, was somewhat like that of
Joseph's brethren when he told them who he was, and the story of
his exaltation in Pharaoh's court; but when he showed them the
arms, the powder, the ball, the provisions that he brought them for
their journey or voyage, they were restored to themselves, took a
just share of the joy of their deliverance, and immediately
prepared to come away with him.
Their first business was to get canoes; and in this they were
obliged not to stick so much upon the honesty of it, but to
trespass upon their friendly savages, and to borrow two large
canoes, or periaguas, on pretence of going out a-fishing, or for
Robinson Crusoe |
