| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: "Friends, they are only gilded disks of lead!"
There was a crashing outbreak of delight over this news, and when
the noise had subsided, the tanner called out:
"By right of apparent seniority in this business, Mr. Wilson is
Chairman of the Committee on Propagation of the Tradition. I
suggest that he step forward on behalf of his pals, and receive in
trust the money."
A Hundred Voices. "Wilson! Wilson! Wilson! Speech! Speech!"
Wilson [in a voice trembling with anger]. "You will allow me to
say, and without apologies for my language, DAMN the money!"
A Voice. "Oh, and him a Baptist!"
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: How distinct, though similar, is the underlying motive of the two
movements, is manifested most clearly by this fact, that, while the male
labour movement takes its rise mainly among the poor and hand-labouring
classes, where the material pressure of the modern conditions of life fall
heaviest, and where the danger of physical suffering and even extinction
under that pressure is most felt; the Woman Labour Movement has taken its
rise almost as exclusively among the wealthy, cultured, and brain-labouring
classes, where alone, at the present day, the danger of enervation through
non-employment, and of degeneration through dependence on the sex function
exists. The female labour movement of our day is, in its ultimate essence,
an endeavour on the part of a section of the race to save itself from
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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 Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling: Lord, what boats I've handled -- rotten and leaky and old!
Ran 'em, or -- opened the bilge-cock, precisely as I was told.
Grub that 'ud bind you crazy, and crews that 'ud turn you grey,
And a big fat lump of insurance to cover the risk on the way.
The others they dursn't do it; they said they valued their life
(They've served me since as skippers). ~I~ went, and I took my wife.
Over the world I drove 'em, married at twenty-three,
And your mother saving the money and making a man of me.
~I~ was content to be master, but she said there was better behind;
She took the chances I wouldn't, and I followed your mother blind.
She egged me to borrow the money, an' she helped me to clear the loan,
Verses 1889-1896 |
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 Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: "I am off to die with Odin," said the rover.
XVIII. - THE TOUCHSTONE.
THE King was a man that stood well before the world; his smile was
sweet as clover, but his soul withinsides was as little as a pea.
He had two sons; and the younger son was a boy after his heart, but
the elder was one whom he feared. It befell one morning that the
drum sounded in the dun before it was yet day; and the King rode
with his two sons, and a brave array behind them. They rode two
hours, and came to the foot of a brown mountain that was very
steep.
"Where do we ride?" said the elder son.
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