| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The School For Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan: Furniture, Pictures, &c.--just as the old Gentleman left it--
Sir Peter thought it a great peice of extravagance in him.
SIR OLIVER. In my mind the other's economy in selling it to him
was more reprehensible by half.----
Enter TRIP
TRIP. My Master[,] Gentlemen[,] says you must wait, he has company,
and can't speak with you yet.
SIR OLIVER. If he knew who it was wanted to see him, perhaps
he wouldn't have sent such a Message.
TRIP. Yes--yes--Sir--He knows you are here--I didn't forget
little Premium--no--no----
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phaedo by Plato: he is to die to-day.' He soon returned and said that we might come in. On
entering we found Socrates just released from chains, and Xanthippe, whom
you know, sitting by him, and holding his child in her arms. When she saw
us she uttered a cry and said, as women will: 'O Socrates, this is the
last time that either you will converse with your friends, or they with
you.' Socrates turned to Crito and said: 'Crito, let some one take her
home.' Some of Crito's people accordingly led her away, crying out and
beating herself. And when she was gone, Socrates, sitting up on the couch,
bent and rubbed his leg, saying, as he was rubbing: How singular is the
thing called pleasure, and how curiously related to pain, which might be
thought to be the opposite of it; for they are never present to a man at
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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 A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: grew fainter. Presently the interior parts were entirely concealed
by the crust - the creature stood opposite Maskull in its old
formidable ugliness, hard, painted, and concrete.
Disliking something about him, the crustacean turned aside and
stumbled awkwardly away on its six legs, with laborious and repulsive
movements, toward the other bank of the stream.
Maskull's apathy left him after this adventure. He became uneasy and
thoughtful. He imagined that he was beginning to see things through
Digrung's eyes, and that there were strange troubles immediately
ahead. The next time his eyes started to blur, he fought it down
with his will, and nothing happened.
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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 Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: floating side by side on Moosehead Lake, on a fair June morning,
fifteen years ago. They are anchored off Green Island, riding
easily on the long, gentle waves. In the stern of each canoe there
is a guide with a long-handled net; in the bow, an angler with a
light fly-rod; in the middle, a smudge-kettle, smoking steadily. In
the air to the windward of the little fleet hovers a swarm of flies
drifting down on the shore breeze, with bloody purpose in their
breasts, but baffled by the protecting smoke. In the water to the
leeward plays a school of speckled trout, feeding on the minnows
that hang around the sunken ledges of rock. As a larger wave than
usual passes over the ledges, it lifts the fish up, and you can see
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