| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: outstretched legs were drawn in; the whole heap moved, and slowly
resolved itself into individual forms, with much yawning and
rubbing of sleepy eyes; behind the curtains there was a burst of
feminine chatter; then the bass voice of Lakamba was heard.
"Is that the Arab trader?"
"No, Tuan," answered Babalatchi; "Dain has returned at last. He
is here for an important talk, bitcharra--if you mercifully
consent."
Evidently Lakamba's mercy went so far--for in a short while he
came out from behind the curtain--but it did not go to the length
of inducing him to make an extensive toilet. A short red sarong
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: known, and who already had his foot in the stirrup.
Marcas relapsed into utter destitution; his haughty patron well knew
the depths into which he had cast him.
Where was he to go? The ministerial papers, privily warned, would have
nothing to say to him. The opposition papers did not care to admit him
to their offices. Marcas could side neither with the Republicans nor
with the Legitimists, two parties whose triumph would mean the
overthrow of everything that now is.
"Ambitious men like a fast hold on things," said he with a smile.
He lived by writing a few articles on commercial affairs, and
contributed to one of those encyclopedias brought out by speculation
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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 Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: need expect to hear from their lips.
[4] See Cic. "pro Coelio," 5.
[5] See Plat. "Charmid." 159 B; Jowett, "Plato," I. 15.
[6] Longinus, {peri ups}, iv. 4, reading {ophthalmois} for
{thalamois}, says: "Yet why speak of Timaeus, when even men like
Xenophon and Plato, the very demigods of literature, though they
had sat at the feet of Socrates, sometimes forget themselves in
the pursuit of such pretty conceits? The former in his account of
the Spartan Polity has these words: 'Their voice you would no more
hear, than if they were of marble, their gaze is as immovable as
if they were cast in bronze. You would deem them more modest than
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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 An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: respectful solicitude.
"Do you think the rain will last long?" said Agatha politely.
The man examined the sky with a weather-wise air for some
moments. Then he turned to Agatha, and replied humbly: "The Lord
only knows, Miss. It is not for a common man like me to say."
Silence ensued, during which Agatha, furtively scrutinizing the
tenant of the chalet, noticed that his face and neck were cleaner
and less sunburnt than those of the ordinary toilers of Lyvern.
His hands were hidden by large gardening gloves stained with coal
dust. Lyvern laborers, as a rule, had little objection to soil
their hands; they never wore gloves. Still, she thought, there
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