| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: But while he was seeking with thimbles and care,
A Bandersnatch swiftly drew nigh
And grabbed at the Banker, who shrieked in despair,
For he knew it was useless to fly.
He offered large discount--he offered a check
(Drawn "to bearer") for seven-pounds-ten:
But the Bandersnatch merely extended its neck
And grabbed at the Banker again.
Without rest or pause--while those frumious jaws
Went savagely snapping around-
He skipped and he hopped, and he floundered and flopped,
The Hunting of the Snark |
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 Economist by Xenophon: memory, records the earliest conversation which I held with her.
VIII
And did you happen to observe, Ischomachus (I asked), whether, as the
result of what was said, your wife was stirred at all to greater
carefulness?
Yes, certainly (Ischomachus answered), and I remember how piqued she
was at one time and how deeply she blushed, when I chanced to ask her
for something which had been brought into the house, and she could not
give it me. So I, when I saw her annoyance, fell to consoling her. "Do
not be at all disheartened, my wife, that you cannot give me what I
ask for. It is plain poverty,[1] no doubt, to need a thing and not to
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