| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: all outward and material things, they are equally fit for good and
for evil. In England here--they have been as yet, as far as I can
see, nothing but blessings: but I have my very serious doubts
whether they are likely to be blessings to the whole human race, for
many an age to come. I can conceive them--may God avert the omen!--
the instruments of a more crushing executive centralisation, of a
more utter oppression of the bodies and souls of men, than the world
has yet seen. I can conceive--may God avert the omen!--centuries
hence, some future world-ruler sitting at the junction of all
railroads, at the centre of all telegraph-wires--a world-spider in
the omphalos of his world-wide web; and smiting from thence
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: trembling. 'Have you no pity for us? Do you not consider that we
are women?'
'I do indeed, my dear,' retorted Dennis. 'It would be very hard
not to, with two such specimens afore my eyes. Ha ha! Oh yes , I
consider that. We all consider that, miss.'
He shook his head waggishly, leered at Hugh again, and laughed very
much, as if he had said a noble thing, and rather thought he was
coming out.
'There'll be no murdering, my dear. Not a bit on it. I tell you
what though, brother,' said Dennis, cocking his hat for the
convenience of scratching his head, and looking gravely at Hugh,
Barnaby Rudge |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: find--his wife and daughter in a flutter of excitement over the
wedding-gown, just arrived from the leading dress-maker of
Sandbourne watering-place aforesaid.
During these weeks Giles Winterborne was nowhere to be seen or
heard of. At the close of his tenure in Hintock he had sold some
of his furniture, packed up the rest--a few pieces endeared by
associations, or necessary to his occupation--in the house of a
friendly neighbor, and gone away. People said that a certain
laxity had crept into his life; that he had never gone near a
church latterly, and had been sometimes seen on Sundays with
unblacked boots, lying on his elbow under a tree, with a cynical
The Woodlanders |
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 Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: certain of comprehension as is English. On ninety occasions out of
a hundred, the context at once makes clear the person meant.
In the very few really ambiguous cases, or those in which, for the
sake of emphasis, a pronoun is wanted, certain consecrated
expressions are introduced for the purpose. For eventually the more
complex social relations of increasing civilization compelled some
sort of distant recognition. Accordingly, compromises with
objectionable personality were effected by circumlocutions promoted
to a pronoun's office, becoming thus pro-pronouns, as it were.
Very noncommittal expressions they are, most of them, such as:
"the augustness," meaning you; "that honorable side," or
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