| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: and good-humour, and seeming more as if she were to marry him when she got
to London than as if parted from him for ever. She stayed nearly two hours,
was as affectionate and agreeable as ever, and not a syllable, not a hint
was dropped, of any disagreement or coolness between them. I asked her
whether she had seen my brother since his arrival in town; not, as you may
suppose, with any doubt of the fact, but merely to see how she looked. She
immediately answered, without any embarrassment, that he had been kind
enough to call on her on Monday; but she believed he had already returned
home, which I was very far from crediting. Your kind invitation is accepted
by us with pleasure, and on Thursday next we and our little ones will be
with you. Pray heaven, Reginald may not be in town again by that time! I
Lady Susan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: uncompromising morality, and of hard knocks given and taken for
God, for Christendom, and the King of France. This poetry is
written in ten- or twelve- sylabble verses grouped, at first in
assonanced, later in rhymed, "tirades" of unequal length. It was
intended for a society which was still homogeneous, and to it at
the outset doubtless all classes of the population listened with
equal interest. As poetry it is monotonous, without sense of
proportion, padded to facilitate memorisation by professional
reciters, and unadorned by figure, fancy, or imagination. Its
pretention to historic accuracy begot prosaicness in its approach
to the style of the chronicles. But its inspiration was noble,
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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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: head of one, caught and held his eye.
"Bill!" he called. "Oh, Bill!"
A shambling, loose-jointed giant rolled out of one of the tents,
yawning and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Then he sighted the
strange canoe and was wide awake on the instant.
"By the jumping Methuselah! That damned sky-pilot!"
Hay Stockard nodded his head bitterly, half-reached for his rifle,
then shrugged his shoulders.
"Pot-shot him," Bill suggested, "and settle the thing out of hand.
He'll spoil us sure if we don't." But the other declined this
drastic measure and turned away, at the same time bidding the
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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 Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: of rope snapped; the masts bent and creaked; the booms jumped and
swung round like live things; the whole ship from bowsprit to
rudder shook and trembled with the assault.
Cleggett, watchful at the wheel, prepared to turn her nose away
from the bank, but he was astonished to perceive that in spite of
her quaking and shivering the Jasper B. did not move one inch
forward from her position. He was prepared for a certain
stability on the part of the Jasper B., but not for quite so much
of it.
With the next gust the storm was on them in earnest. This blast
came with zigzag flashes of lightning that showed the heavens
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