| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: because the pool never goes dry, which it would, of course,
if the water didn't come back in the night. It is best to prove
things by actual experiment; then you KNOW; whereas if you depend
on guessing and supposing and conjecturing, you never get educated.
Some things you CAN'T find out; but you will never know you can't
by guessing and supposing: no, you have to be patient and go on
experimenting until you find out that you can't find out. And it is
delightful to have it that way, it makes the world so interesting.
If there wasn't anything to find out, it would be dull. Even trying
to find out and not finding out is just as interesting as trying
to find out and finding out, and I don't know but more so.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: sect. It is a solemn, universal assertion, deeply to be kept in
mind by all sects. But perhaps we shall be better able to reason on
it if we go on a little farther, and come back to it. For clearly
this marked insistence on the power of the true episcopate is to
make us feel more weightily what is to be charged against the false
claimants of episcopate; or generally, against false claimants of
power and rank in the body of the clergy; they who, "for their
bellies' sake, creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold."
Never think Milton uses those three words to fill up his verse, as a
loose writer would. He needs all the three;--especially those
three, and no more than those--"creep," and "intrude," and "climb;"
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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 Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: of my towels--while Gatsby and I waited on the lawn.
"My house looks well, doesn't it?" he demanded. "See how the whole
front of it catches the light."
I agreed that it was splendid.
"Yes." His eyes went over it, every arched door and square tower. "It took
me just three years to earn the money that bought it."
"I thought you inherited your money."
"I did, old sport," he said automatically, "but I lost most of it in
the big panic--the panic of the war."
I think he hardly knew what he was saying, for when I asked him what
business he was in he answered, "That's my affair," before he realized
The Great Gatsby |
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 The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: higher stakes. For her own personal ends, therefore, she looked to
Paul as a means of destiny, she proposed to employ the resources of
her own talent and knowledge of life to advance her son-in-law, in
order to enjoy through him the delights of power. Many men are thus
made the screens of secret feminine ambitions. Madame Evangelista had,
however, more than one interest, as we shall see, in laying hold of
her daughter's husband.
Paul was naturally captivated by this woman, who charmed him all the
more because she seemed to seek no influence over him. In reality she
was using her ascendancy to magnify herself, her daughter, and all her
surroundings in his eyes, for the purpose of ruling from the start the
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