| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: constant exercise of consideration, sympathy, fairness,
gentleness, and mutual assistance, granted that even in this
condition of society all those instincts are already active which
are latterly distinguished by honourable names as "virtues," and
eventually almost coincide with the conception "morality": in
that period they do not as yet belong to the domain of moral
valuations--they are still ULTRA-MORAL. A sympathetic action, for
instance, is neither called good nor bad, moral nor immoral, in
the best period of the Romans; and should it be praised, a sort
of resentful disdain is compatible with this praise, even at the
best, directly the sympathetic action is compared with one which
Beyond Good and Evil |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: number. So many lodging-houses in this street, you know, and so big."
Drops of water fell from her hair on to the paper. She burst out laughing.
"Oh, HOW dreadful I must look--one moment!" She ran back to the washstand
and caught up a towel. The door was still open...After all, there was
nothing more to be said. Why on earth had she asked him to wait a moment?
She folded the towel round her shoulders, and returned to the door,
suddenly grave. "I'm sorry; I know no such name" in a sharp voice.
Said the strange man: "Sorry, too. Have you been living here long?"
"Er--yes--a long time." She began to close the door slowly.
"Well--good-morning, thanks so much. Hope I haven't been a bother."
"Good-morning."
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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 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: you know, there's a thing I should require now, just without sparing
you the least bit more--oh, not a scrap, come!--to get out of you.
What was it you had in mind when, in our distress, before Miles came back,
over the letter from his school, you said, under my insistence,
that you didn't pretend for him that he had not literally EVER
been `bad'? He has NOT literally `ever,' in these weeks that I
myself have lived with him and so closely watched him; he has been
an imperturbable little prodigy of delightful, lovable goodness.
Therefore you might perfectly have made the claim for him
if you had not, as it happened, seen an exception to take.
What was your exception, and to what passage in your personal
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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 Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: he should find here what he was seeking; but when he was
congratulating the master upon his possessions he answered with a
sigh, "My condition has indeed the appearance of happiness, but
appearances are delusive. My prosperity puts my life in danger;
the Bassa of Egypt is my enemy, incensed only by my wealth and
popularity. I have been hitherto protected against him by the
princes of the country; but as the favour of the great is uncertain
I know not how soon my defenders may be persuaded to share the
plunder with the Bassa. I have sent my treasures into a distant
country, and upon the first alarm am prepared to follow them. Then
will my enemies riot in my mansion, and enjoy the gardens which I
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