| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: narrative.
"'Messieurs!' cried Sieyes, in a grave and solemn tone.
"That word 'Messieurs!' was perfectly understood by all present; all
eyes expressed the same faith, the same promise, that of absolute
silence, and unswerving loyalty to each other in case the First Consul
returned triumphant.
"'We all know what we have to do,' added Fouche.
"Sieyes softly unbolted the door; his priestly ear had warned him.
Lucien entered the room.
"'Good news!' he said. 'A courier has just brought Madame Bonaparte a
line from the First Consul. The campaign has opened with a victory at
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: "Something mysterious here!" said Servadac. "But yet,"
he continued, after a pause, "one thing is tolerably certain:
on the 15th, six days ago, someone was alive to write it."
"Yes; I presume there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the date,"
assented the count.
To this strange conglomeration of French, English, Italian, and Latin,
there was no signature attached; nor was there anything to give a clue
as to the locality in which it had been committed to the waves.
A telescope-case would probably be the property of some one on board
a ship; and the figures obviously referred to the astronomical wonders
that had been experienced.
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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 Soul of the Far East by Percival Lowell: qualities of the mind, but only one. For otherwise we might have
supposed the fact too evident to need mention. Imagination is the
single source of the new, the one mainspring of psychical advance;
reason, like a balance-wheel, only keeping the action regular.
For reason is but the touchstone of experience, our own, inherited,
or acquired from others. It compares what we imagine with what we
know, and gives us answer in terms of the here and the now, which
we call the actual. But the actual is really nothing but the local.
It does not mark the limits of the possible.
That imagination has been the moving spirit of the psychical world
is evident, whatever branch of human thought we are pleased to
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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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: little, and a dark stream flowed from his mouth. And Sigmund, the
Golden-Haired, his throat a-gurgle with the song, threw up his
arms and pitched across the fire.
The witch doctor's eyes were well blackened, and his temper none
of the best; for he quarrelled with the chief over the possession
of Wertz's rifle, and took more than his share of the part-sack of
beans. Also he appropriated the bearskin, and caused grumbling
among the tribesmen. And finally, he tried to kill Sigmund's dog,
which the girl had given him, but the dog ran away, while he fell
into the shaft and dislocated his shoulder on the bucket. When
the camp was well looted they went back to their own lodges, and
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