| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: In the several creeks and openings, as above, on this shore there
are also other islands, but of no particular note, except Mersey,
which lies in the middle of the two openings between Malden Water
and Colchester Water; being of the most difficult access, so that
it is thought a thousand men well provided might keep possession of
it against a great force, whether by land or sea. On this account,
and because if possessed by an enemy it would shut up all the
navigation and fishery on that side, the Government formerly built
a fort on the south-east point of it; and generally in case of
Dutch war, there is a strong body of troops kept there to defend
it.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: sugar you are eating, they tell us, is ink, and forthwith we
reject it with infinite disgust. This black draught of unrequited
toil is True Happiness, and down it goes with every symptom of
pleasure. This Ibsen, they say, is dull past believing, and we
yawn and stretch beyond endurance. Pardon! they interrupt, but
this Ibsen is deep and delightful, and we vie with one another in
an excess of entertainment. And when we open the heads of these
two young people, we find, not a straightforward motive on the
surface anywhere; we find, indeed, not a soul so much as an
oversoul, a zeitgeist, a congestion of acquired ideas, a
highway's feast of fine, confused thinking. The girl is resolute
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: "My daughter's future is in question here."
Renouard thought that the love of such a woman was enough to pull
any broken man together - to drag a man out of his grave. And he
thought this with inward despair, which kept him silent as much
almost as his astonishment. At last he managed to stammer out a
generous -
"Oh! Don't let us even suppose. . ."
The professor struck in with a sadder accent than before -
"It's good to be young. And then you have been a man of action,
and necessarily a believer in success. But I have been looking too
long at life not to distrust its surprises. Age! Age! Here I
Within the Tides |
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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: As next the king he was successive heir,
And such high vaunts of his nobility,
Did instigate the bedlam brain-sick duchess
By wicked means to frame our sovereign's fall.
Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep,
And in his simple show he harbours treason.
The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.--
No, no, my sovereign; Gloster is a man
Unsounded yet and full of deep deceit.
CARDINAL.
Did he not, contrary to form of law,
|
