| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: statements that which is common to Socrates, Isaiah, David, St.
Bernard, the Jansenists, Luther, Mahomet, Bunyan - yes, and George
Eliot: of course you do not believe that this something could be
written down in a set of propositions like Euclid, neither will you
deny that there is something common and this something very
valuable. . . . I shall be sorry if the boys ever give a moment's
thought to the question of what community they belong to - I hope
they will belong to the great community.' I should observe that as
time went on his conformity to the church in which he was born grew
more complete, and his views drew nearer the conventional. 'The
longer I live, my dear Louis,' he wrote but a few months before his
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: without tone being like music without harmony, mere discord.
Barren architecture, the vulgar and glaring advertisements that
desecrate not merely your cities but every rock and river that I
have seen yet in America - all this is not enough. A school of
design we must have too in each city. It should be a stately and
noble building, full of the best examples of the best art of the
world. Furthermore, do not put your designers in a barren
whitewashed room and bid them work in that depressing and
colourless atmosphere as I have seen many of the American schools
of design, but give them beautiful surroundings. Because you want
to produce a permanent canon and standard of taste in your workman,
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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 Salome by Oscar Wilde: tomber. C'etait l'epee du bourreau. Il a peur, cet esclave! Il a
laisse tomber son epee. Il n'ose pas le tuer. C'est un lache, cet
esclave! Il faut envoyer des soldats. [Elle voit le page
d'Herodias et s'adresse e lui.] Viens ici. Tu as ete l'ami de
celui qui est mort, n'est-ce pas? Eh bien, il n'y a pas eu assez de
morts. Dites aux soldats qu'ils descendent et m'apportent ce que je
demande, ce que le tetrarque m'a promis, ce qui m'appartient. [Le
page recule. Elle s'adresse aux soldais.] Venez ici, soldats.
Descendez dans cette citerne, et apportez-moi la tete de cet homme.
[Les soldats reculent.] Tetrarque, tetrarque, commandez e vos
soldats de m'apporter la tete d'Iokanaan. [Un grand bras noir, le
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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 Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: to restrain her enthusiasm. She put her hands over some Orkids she
was wearing when I kissed her. She and Sis were on their way to
something or other.
"Trimmed up like Easter hats, you two!" I said.
"School has not changed you, I fear, Barbara," mother observed. "I
hope you are studying hard."
"Exactly as hard as I have to. No more, no less," I regret to confess
that I replied. And I saw Sis and mother exchange glances of signifacance.
We dropped them at the Reception and father went to his office and
I went on home alone. And all at once I began to be embittered. Sis
had everything, and what had I? And when I got home, and saw that
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