| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: when Mabonagrain knew it he was delighted for his sweetheart
because now she was comforted. And she who bore them quickly the
news made them all happy in a short space. Even the King was
glad for it; although he was very happy before, yet now he is
still happier, and shows Erec great honour. Enide leads away her
fair cousin, fairer than Helen, more graceful and charming. Now
Erec and Mabonagrain, Guivret and King Evrain, and all the others
run to meet them and salute them and do them honour, for no one
is grudging or holds back. Mabonagrain makes much of Enide, and
she of him. Erec and Guivret, for their part, rejoice over the
damsel as they all kiss and embrace each other. They propose to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells: with brown. The roof was in shadow, and the windows, partially
glazed with coloured glass and partially unglazed, admitted a
tempered light. The floor was made up of huge blocks of some
very hard white metal, not plates nor slabs--blocks, and it was
so much worn, as I judged by the going to and fro of past
generations, as to be deeply channelled along the more frequented
ways. Transverse to the length were innumerable tables made of
slabs of polished stone, raised perhaps a foot from the floor,
and upon these were heaps of fruits. Some I recognized as a kind
of hypertrophied raspberry and orange, but for the most part they
were strange.
The Time Machine |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: her anywhere.
"No," she said, "the day is too unpleasant to go out."
It was raining in torrents. At half-past two o'clock Monsieur
Desmarets reached the Treasury. At four o'clock, as he left the
Bourse, he came face to face with Monsieur de Maulincour, who was
waiting for him with the nervous pertinacity of hatred and vengeance.
"Monsieur," he said, taking Monsieur Desmarets by the arm, "I have
important information to give you. Listen to me. I am too loyal a man
to have recourse to anonymous letters with which to trouble your peace
of mind; I prefer to speak to you in person. Believe me, if my very
life were not concerned, I should not meddle with the private affairs
Ferragus |
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 Euthydemus by Plato: exhibit, but also to teach any one who likes to learn.
But I can promise you, I said, that every unvirtuous person will want to
learn. I shall be the first; and there is the youth Cleinias, and
Ctesippus: and here are several others, I said, pointing to the lovers of
Cleinias, who were beginning to gather round us. Now Ctesippus was sitting
at some distance from Cleinias; and when Euthydemus leaned forward in
talking with me, he was prevented from seeing Cleinias, who was between us;
and so, partly because he wanted to look at his love, and also because he
was interested, he jumped up and stood opposite to us: and all the other
admirers of Cleinias, as well as the disciples of Euthydemus and
Dionysodorus, followed his example. And these were the persons whom I
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