| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: THE GEORGICS
by Virgil
GEORGIC I
What makes the cornfield smile; beneath what star
Maecenas, it is meet to turn the sod
Or marry elm with vine; how tend the steer;
What pains for cattle-keeping, or what proof
Of patient trial serves for thrifty bees;-
Such are my themes.
O universal lights
Most glorious! ye that lead the gliding year
Georgics |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Human Drift by Jack London: a small boy at seven o'clock at night with ten skins from which
you may select those which most satisfy your aspirations.
"In the hope that you will look upon this in the same light as
myself, I beg to be allowed to remain,
"Your most faithful servant,
" CAPTAIN ERNESTO BECUCCI."
Well, thought I, this Captain Ernesto Becucci has shown himself to
be such an undependable person, that, while I don't mind rewarding
him for his composition, I fear me if I do I never shall lay eyes
on those leopard skins. So to Eliceo I gave this letter for the
Captain:
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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 Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: "What grandchildren?" asked the old woman, and she looked angrily
at him; "perhaps there are none."
"Well, but perhaps there are. Who knows?"
"And thereby you can judge," Yegor hurried on, "what is the enemy
without and what is the enemy within. The foremost of our enemies
within is Bacchus." The pen squeaked, executing upon the paper
flourishes like fish-hooks. Yegor hastened and read over every
line several times. He sat on a stool sprawling his broad feet
under the table, well-fed, bursting with health, with a coarse
animal face and a red bull neck. He was vulgarity itself: coarse,
conceited, invincible, proud of having been born and bred in a
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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 Finished by H. Rider Haggard: or thousands of pounds, or vice-versa if you lost, for as it cost
no one anything, my dear father insisted upon playing for
enormous stakes. Never in any aspect of life have I cared for
fooling. Anscombe also disliked cards, I think because his
ancestors too had played with counters, such as some that I have
seen belonging to the Cocoa-Tree Club and other gambling places
of a past generation, marked as high as a thousand guineas, which
counters must next morning be redeemed in hard cash, whereby his
family had been not a little impoverished.
"I fancy you will find they are high-fliers," he said when the
pair had left to fetch a suitable table, for the night being very
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