| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate
my remedy for this one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no
other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon Earth.
Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing
our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither
cloaths, nor houshold furniture, except what is of our own growth
and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and
instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the
expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our
women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and
temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: Alas! my fears were but too fully justified; she grew gradually
worse--and I daily became more alarmed for her. At length she
was obliged to confine herself solely to the Bed allotted us by
our worthy Landlady--. Her disorder turned to a galloping
Consumption and in a few days carried her off. Amidst all my
Lamentations for her (and violent you may suppose they were) I
yet received some consolation in the reflection of my having paid
every attention to her, that could be offered, in her illness. I
had wept over her every Day--had bathed her sweet face with my
tears and had pressed her fair Hands continually in mine--. "My
beloved Laura (said she to me a few Hours before she died) take
Love and Friendship |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: winds seemed pierced by Gale's eyes.
Yaqui spied a flock of sheep far under the curved broken rim of
the main crater. Then began the stalk. Gale had taught the Yaqui
something--that speed might win as well as patient cunning. Keeping
out of sight, Gale ran over the spike-crusted lava, leaving the
Indian far behind. His feet were magnets, attracting supporting
holds and he passed over them too fast to fall. The wind, the keen
air of the heights, the red lava, the boundless surrounding blue,
all seemed to have something to do with his wildness. Then, hiding,
slipping, creeping, crawling, he closed in upon his quarry until
the long rifle grew like stone in his grip, and the whipping "spang"
Desert Gold |
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 A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: two artists, who went away laughing at the expression of Oscar's face.
Oscar remained dumb, confounded, stupefied, hearing nothing, though
Madame Moreau questioned him and shook him violently by his arm, which
she caught and squeezed. She gained nothing, however, and was forced
to leave him in the salon without an answer, for Rosalie appeared
again, to ask for linen and silver, and to beg she would go herself
and see that the multiplied orders of the count were executed. All the
household, together with the gardeners and the concierge and his wife,
were going and coming in a confusion that may readily be imagined. The
master had fallen upon his own house like a bombshell.
From the top of the hill near La Cave, where he left the coach, the
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