| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: passed into a definite desire, into a dream of buying himself a
little farm somewhere on the banks of a river or a lake.
"He was a gentle, good-natured fellow, and I was fond of him, but
I never sympathized with this desire to shut himself up for the
rest of his life in a little farm of his own. It's the correct
thing to say that a man needs no more than six feet of earth. But
six feet is what a corpse needs, not a man. And they say, too,
now, that if our intellectual classes are attracted to the land
and yearn for a farm, it's a good thing. But these farms are just
the same as six feet of earth. To retreat from town, from the
struggle, from the bustle of life, to retreat and bury oneself in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: across the chamber.
"Pardon me, gentle lady," said Sir Ralph. "Had I known you
before yesterday, I would have cut off my right hand ere it
should have been raised to do you displeasure.
"Oh sir," said Matilda, "a good man may be forced on an ill office:
but I can distinguish the man from his duty." She presented to him
her hand, which he kissed respectfully, and simultaneously with the
contact thirty-two invisible arrows plunged at once into his heart,
one from every point of the compass of his pericardia.
"Well, father," added Matilda, "I must go to the woods."
"Must you?" said the baron; "I say you must not."
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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 Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: superiority. It is because he is thus free from striving that
therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him.
3. That saying of the ancients that 'the partial becomes complete' was
not vainly spoken:--all real completion is comprehended under it.
23. 1. Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity
of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a
sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these
(two) things are owing? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth
cannot make such (spasmodic) actings last long, how much less can man!
2. Therefore when one is making the Tao his business, those who are
also pursuing it, agree with him in it, and those who are making the
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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 The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: and did not wish to take the whole territory in the first campaign.
But in vain. He was not able to mend the matter, all the verbs being
of the same build, all Gatlings, all of the same caliber and delivery,
fifty-seven to the volley, and fatal at a mile and a half.
But he said the auxiliary verb AVERE, TO HAVE, was a tidy thing,
and easy to handle in a seaway, and less likely to miss stays in
going about than some of the others; so, upon his recommendation I
chose that one, and told him to take it along and scrape its bottom
and break out its spinnaker and get it ready for business.
I will explain that a facchino is a general-utility domestic.
Mine was a horse-doctor in his better days, and a very good one.
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