| 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: Royalists hinder them, but let good part of Barkstead's own
regiment enter the head-gate; but then sallying from St. Mary's
with a choice body of foot on their left, and the horse rallying in
the High Street, and charging them again in the front, they were
driven back quite into the street of the suburb, and most of those
that had so rashly entered were cut in pieces.
Thus they were repulsed at the south entrance into the town; and
though they attempted to storm three times after that with great
resolution, yet they were as often beaten back, and that with great
havoc of their men; and the cannon from the fort all the while did
execution upon those who stood drawn up to support them; so that at
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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 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: "You were travelling in the States?"
"Yes."
"Did you become engaged then?"
"No."
"But you were on a friendly footing?"
"I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was
amused."
"Her father is very rich?"
"He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope."
"And how did he make his money?"
"In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold,
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from King James Bible: were three hundred ninety and two.
EZR 2:59 And these were they which went up from Telmelah, Telharsa,
Cherub, Addan, and Immer: but they could not shew their father's house,
and their seed, whether they were of Israel:
EZR 2:60 The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children
of Nekoda, six hundred fifty and two.
EZR 2:61 And of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah,
the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai; which took a wife of the
daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name:
EZR 2:62 These sought their register among those that were reckoned by
genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted,
King James Bible |
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 De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: field as none, either on Cithaeron or at Enna, had ever done.
The song of Isaiah, 'He is despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces
from him,' had seemed to him to prefigure himself, and in him the
prophecy was fulfilled. We must not be afraid of such a phrase.
Every single work of art is the fulfilment of a prophecy: for
every work of art is the conversion of an idea into an image.
Every single human being should be the fulfilment of a prophecy:
for every human being should be the realisation of some ideal,
either in the mind of God or in the mind of man. Christ found the
type and fixed it, and the dream of a Virgilian poet, either at
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