| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Street of Seven Stars by Mary Roberts Rinehart: Professor Bergmeister that she could think of nothing else.
Obedient to orders she had placed the envelope containing her
fifty Kronen before the secretary as she went in. The master was
out of humor. Should he, the teacher of the great Koert, be kept
waiting for a chit of a girl--only, of course, he said "das
Kindchen" or some other German equivalent for chit--and then have
her come into the sacred presence breathless, and salute him
between gasps as the Frau Professor Bergmeister?
Being excited and now confused by her error, and being also
rather tremulous with three flights of stairs at top speed,
Harmony dropped her bow. In point of heinousness this classes
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: to which some sensitive men are liable. A gentleman,
on whom I can rely, assured me that he had been an eye-witness
of the following scene:--A small dinner-party was given in honour
of an extremely shy man, who, when he rose to return thanks,
rehearsed the speech, which he had evidently learnt by heart,
in absolute silence, and did not utter a single word;
but he acted as if he were speaking with much emphasis.
His friends, perceiving how the case stood, loudly applauded
the imaginary bursts of eloquence, whenever his gestures
indicated a pause, and the man never discovered that he had
remained the whole time completely silent. On the contrary,
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Koran: prosper!
That is the future abode; we make it for those who do not wish to be
haughty in the earth, nor to do evil, and the end is for the pious.
He who brings a good deed shall have better than it; and he who
brings an evil deed-those who do evil deeds shall only be rewarded for
that which they have done. Verily, He who hath ordained the Koran
for thee will restore thee to thy returning place. Say, 'My Lord knows
best who brings guidance, and who is in obvious error; nor couldst
thou hope that the Book would be thrown to thee, save as a mercy
from thy Lord! be not then a backer up of those who misbelieve; and
let them not turn thee from the signs of God, after they have been
The Koran |
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 Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: was a heavy piece of old wreck timber, like a ship's bone, full of
tree-nails. From this a little footpath, narrow with one man's
treading, led up across the small green field that made Mr.
Tilley's whole estate, except a straggling pasture that tilted on
edge up the steep hillside beyond the house and road. I could hear
the tinkle-tankle of a cow-bell somewhere among the spruces by
which the pasture was being walked over and forested from every
side; it was likely to be called the wood lot before long, but the
field was unmolested. I could not see a bush or a brier anywhere
within its walls, and hardly a stray pebble showed itself. This
was most surprising in that country of firm ledges, and scattered
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