| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: or they should kill me. So I told Tom that he need not come unless he
liked, but I was going; and being a plucky fellow, a Swazi by birth, he
shrugged his shoulders, muttered that I was mad or bewitched, and
followed doggedly in my tracks.
"We soon reached the kloof, which was about three hundred yards in
length and but sparsely wooded, and then the real fun began. There
might be a lion behind every bush--there certainly were four lions
somewhere; the delicate question was, where. I peeped and poked and
looked in every possible direction, with my heart in my mouth, and was
at last rewarded by catching a glimpse of something yellow moving behind
a bush. At the same moment, from another bush opposite me out burst one
Long Odds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: proceeded to show his sense of Christian fellowship by arresting his
brother bishop, and despoiling him of his share in the government;
and to set forth his humility and loving-kindness in a retinue of nobles
and knights who consumed in one night's entertainment some five years'
revenue of their entertainer, and in a guard of fifteen hundred
foreign soldiers, whom he considered indispensable to the exercise
of a vigour beyond the law in maintaining wholesome discipline over
the refractory English. The ignorant impatience of the swinish multitude
with these fruits of good living, brought forth by one of the meek who
had inherited the earth, displayed itself in a general ferment, of which
Prince John took advantage to make the experiment of getting possession
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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 Collected Articles by Frederick Douglass: at the feet of Federal authority. Their State governments were overthrown,
and the lives and property of the leaders of the Rebellion were forfeited.
In reconstructing the institutions of these shattered and overthrown States,
Congress should begin with a clean slate, and make clean work of it.
Let there be no hesitation. It would be a cowardly deference
to a defeated and treacherous President, if any account were made of
the illegitimate, one-sided, sham governments hurried into existence
for a malign purpose in the absence of Congress. These pretended governments,
which were never submitted to the people, and from participation in which
four millions of the loyal people were excluded by Presidential order,
should now be treated according to their true character, as shams
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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 Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: flowers with red buds made their appearance in the windows and in
the front garden, and at dinner, instead of eating from a single
bowl, each person had a separate plate set for him. Varvara
Nikolaevna had a pleasant, friendly smile, and it seemed as
though the whole house were smiling, too. Beggars and pilgrims,
male and female, began to come into the yard, a thing which had
never happened in the past; the plaintive sing-song voices of the
Ukleevo peasant women and the apologetic coughs of weak,
seedy-looking men, who had been dismissed from the factory for
drunkenness were heard under the windows. Varvara helped them
with money, with bread, with old clothes, and afterwards, when
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