| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: side I stared with a livelier surprise. Then he spoke. "I don't
know what you're talking about."
He wasn't acting - it was the absurd truth.
"She DIDN'T tell you - ?"
"Nothing about Hugh Vereker."
I was stupefied; the room went round. It had been too good even
for that! "Upon your honour?"
"Upon my honour. What the devil's the matter with you?" he
growled.
"I'm astounded - I'm disappointed. I wanted to get it out of you."
"It isn't in me!" he awkwardly laughed. "And even if it were - "
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: the stage. Kamenev opened the meeting by a solemn
announcement of the founding of the Third
International in the Kremlin. There was a roar of applause
from the audience, which rose and sang the "International"
in a way that I have never heard it sung since the
All-Russian Assembly when the news came of the strikes in
Germany during the Brest negotiations. Kamenev then
spoke of those who had died on the way, mentioning
Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg, and the whole theatre
stood again while the orchestra played, "You fell as
victims." Then Lenin spoke. If I had ever thought that
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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 Pericles by William Shakespeare: [Enter Simonides, Lords and Attendants.]
SIMONIDES.
Are the knights ready to begin the triumph?
FIRST LORD.
They are, my liege;
And stay your coming to present themselves.
SIMONIDES.
Return them, we are ready; and our daughter,
In honour of whose birth these triumphs are,
Sits here, like beauty's child, whom nature gat
For men to see, and seeing wonder at.
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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 Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: nose, and by which one nose ranks above another, and bears a higher price,
is owing to the cartilaginous and muscular parts of it, into whose ducts
and sinuses the blood and animal spirits being impell'd and driven by the
warmth and force of the imagination, which is but a step from it (bating
the case of idiots, whom Prignitz, who had lived many years in Turky,
supposes under the more immediate tutelage of Heaven)--it so happens, and
ever must, says Prignitz, that the excellency of the nose is in a direct
arithmetical proportion to the excellency of the wearer's fancy.
It is for the same reason, that is, because 'tis all comprehended in
Slawkenbergius, that I say nothing likewise of Scroderus (Andrea) who, all
the world knows, set himself to oppugn Prignitz with great violence--
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