| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: sound, and muscles tense and ready for instant retreat.
In a little while familiarity modified their fears and
they gave the place a critical and interested exam-
ination, rather admiring their own boldness, and won-
dering at it, too. Next they wanted to look up-stairs.
This was something like cutting off retreat, but they got
to daring each other, and of course there could be but
one result -- they threw their tools into a corner and made
the ascent. Up there were the same signs of decay.
In one corner they found a closet that promised mystery,
but the promise was a fraud -- there was nothing in it.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: least the upper part of it, should be taken down, it being supposed
to have received some damage by the great storm in the year 1703;
but it was resolved in the negative, and Sir Christopher ordered it
to be so strengthened with bands of iron plates as has effectually
secured it; and I have heard some of the best architects say it is
stronger now than when it was first built.
They tell us here long stories of the great art used in laying the
first foundation of this church, the ground being marshy and wet,
occasioned by the channels of the rivers; that it was laid upon
piles, according to some, and upon woolpacks, according to others.
But this is not supposed by those who know that the whole country
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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 Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: though both vague and multitudinous, had lasted a long time,
protected, as it were, yet at the same time aggravated, by the
circumstance of its coinciding with a stretch of decorous silence.
They couldn't talk without disturbing the spectators in the part
of the balcony just below them; and it, for that matter, came to
Strether--being a thing of the sort that did come to him--that
these were the accidents of a high civilisation; the imposed
tribute to propriety, the frequent exposure to conditions, usually
brilliant, in which relief has to await its time. Relief was never
quite near at hand for kings, queens, comedians and other such
people, and though you might be yourself not exactly one of those,
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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 A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: so seeing a man standing with a basket on the other side of the
street, as if he had something to sell, I bid La Fleur go up to
him, and enquire for the Count's hotel.
La Fleur returned a little pale; and told me it was a Chevalier de
St. Louis selling pates. - It is impossible, La Fleur, said I. - La
Fleur could no more account for the phenomenon than myself; but
persisted in his story: he had seen the croix set in gold, with its
red riband, he said, tied to his buttonhole - and had looked into
the basket and seen the pates which the Chevalier was selling; so
could not be mistaken in that.
Such a reverse in man's life awakens a better principle than
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