| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: you thought you could keep her virtuous in a society where women
whisper from ear to ear that which men are afraid to say.
No, your wife has liked the social benefits she derived from
marriage, but the private burdens of it she found rather heavy.
Those burdens, that tax was--you! Seeing nothing of all this, you
have gone on digging your abysses (to use the hackneyed words of
rhetoric) and covering them with flowers. You have mildly obeyed
the law which rules the ruck of men; from which I desired to
protect you. Dear fellow! only one thing was wanting to make you
as dull as the bourgeois deceived by his wife, who is all
astonishment or wrath, and that is that you should talk to me of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: begad, I WILL help, if it's only to escape that tremendous
thrashing I deserved. Go along to your home, my sais-Policeman,
and change into decent kit, and I'll attack Mr. Youghal. Miss
Youghal, may I ask you to canter home and wait?
. . . . . . . . .
About seven minutes later, there was a wild hurroosh at the Club.
A sais, with a blanket and head-rope, was asking all the men he
knew: "For Heaven's sake lend me decent clothes!" As the men did
not recognize him, there were some peculiar scenes before
Strickland could get a hot bath, with soda in it, in one room, a
shirt here, a collar there, a pair of trousers elsewhere, and so
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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 The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: produce of their own labour) should be done away
with, and a rent graduated according to the site-
value of the land should be substituted. Monop-
olies would cease without violently and unjustly
disturbing society with confiscation and redistribu-
tion. No one would keep land idle if he were
taxed according to its value to the community,
and not according to the use to which he individ-
ually wished to put it. A man would then read-
ily obtain possession of land, and could turn it to
account and develop it without being taxed on his
The Forged Coupon |
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 Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic: render much assistance. The rest of the neighbors, though kindly
disposed, had their own families to care for, and could do very
little for others.
With what slight aid her friends could afford, Katy struggled
through a week, when Dr. Flynch appeared, and demanded the rent.
There was but little more than money enough left to pay it, but
Katy would not ask him for any indulgence, and paid him in full.
In a few days more the purse was empty. Katy's most dreaded hour
had come. She had no money, and almost every day some new thing
was required for her mother. But this time she had friends, and
she determined to use them, as all true friends wish to be used
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