| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: much praised for his acting upon the stage, he wrote to his
friends to use all their entreaties to bring him to Rome (for,
being a Grecian, he could not be compelled); he wrote also to
Cicero, begging him by no means to omit being present at the
shows.
This was the posture of affairs when another sudden alteration
was made upon the young Caesar's coming to Rome. He was son to
the niece of Caesar, who adopted him, and left him his heir by
his will. At the time when Caesar was killed, he was following
his studies at Apollonia, where he was expecting also to meet
Caesar on his way to the expedition which he had determined on
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: their tea,'" added the one with glasses. "Here, son," he went on,
pointing again, "this is also a tree. Compare them and deduce
treehood by subtracting the anomalous from the universal."
"Certainly you have read Dohesius On the Nature of the Universe in
the last twenty-five years," the other philosopher said with some
indignation. "Don't you recall his dictum that 'a second example is
not an explanation'? How do you pretend to instruct the ignorance of
youth when you have never instructed yourself? 'The canvas remains
blank when the artist has no paint,' says Hugo de Brassus. Go back
to your books."
"And as de Roquefort says, 'To sit on a cheese and eat whey is the
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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 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: and a Paris creation on it within two months."
"Indeed, no, and don't let's discuss it any further," said
Scarlett, annoyed by his reference to Charles. Rhett, who was
preparing to leave for Wilmington for another trip abroad,
departed with a grin on his face.
One bright summer morning some weeks later, he reappeared with a
brightly trimmed hatbox in his hand and, after finding that
Scarlett was alone in the house, he opened it. Wrapped in layers
of tissue was a bonnet, a creation that made her cry: "Oh, the
darling thing!" as she reached for it. Starved for the sight,
much less the touch, of new clothes, it seemed the loveliest
Gone With the Wind |
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 Call of the Wild by Jack London: madness break out among his dogs. Two hours of cursing and
exertion got the harnesses into shape, and the wound-stiffened
team was under way, struggling painfully over the hardest part of
the trail they had yet encountered, and for that matter, the
hardest between them and Dawson.
The Thirty Mile River was wide open. Its wild water defied the
frost, and it was in the eddies only and in the quiet places that
the ice held at all. Six days of exhausting toil were required to
cover those thirty terrible miles. And terrible they were, for
every foot of them was accomplished at the risk of life to dog and
man. A dozen times, Perrault, nosing the way broke through the
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