| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: LORD.
Hence comes it that your kindred shuns your house,
As beaten hence by your strange lunacy.
O noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth,
Call home thy ancient thoughts from banishment,
And banish hence these abject lowly dreams.
Look how thy servants do attend on thee,
Each in his office ready at thy beck:
Wilt thou have music? Hark! Apollo plays,
[Music]
And twenty caged nightingales do sing:
The Taming of the Shrew |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: "But why should I?" was the demand. "The pair of you trapped me
into making a fool of myself. How was I to know that everything
was not all right? You and she acted as if everything were on the
square. But my eyes are open now. Why, she played the outraged
wife to perfection, slapped the transgressor and fled to you.
Pretty good proof of what all the beach has been saying. Partners,
eh?--a business partnership? Gammon my eye, that's what it is."
Then it was that Sheldon struck out, coolly and deliberately, with
all the strength of his arm, and Tudor, caught on the jaw, fell
sideways, crumpling as he did so and crushing a chair to kindling
wood beneath the weight of his falling body. He pulled himself
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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 Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: It was two weeks later that Liebard came into the kitchen at market-
time, and handed her a letter from her brother-in-law. As neither of
them could read, she called upon her mistress.
Madame Aubain, who was counting the stitches of her knitting, laid her
work down beside her, opened the letter, started, and in a low tone
and with a searching look said: "They tell you of a--misfortune. Your
nephew--"
He had died. The letter told nothing more.
Felicite dropped on a chair, leaned her head against the back, and
closed her lids; presently they grew pink. Then, with drooping head,
inert hands and staring eyes she repeated at intervals:
A Simple Soul |
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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: Meanwhile let every man who would awake to the importance of
Sanitary questions, do his best to teach and preach, in season and
out of season, and to instruct, as far as he can, that public
opinion which is as yet but public ignorance. Let him throw, for
instance, what weight he has into the "National Association for
the Advancement of Social Science." In it he will learn, as well
as teach, not only on Sanitary Reforms, but upon those cognate
questions which must be considered with it, if it is ever to be
carried out.
Indeed, this new "National Association" seems the most hopeful and
practical move yet made by the sanitarists. It may be laughed at
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