| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: incolumes, perpaucis vulneratis, ex tanti belli timore, cum hostium
numerus capitum CCCCXXX milium fuisset, se in castra receperunt. Caesar
iis quos in castris retinuerat discedendi potestatem fecit. Illi
supplicia cruciatusque Gallorum veriti, quorum agros vexaverant, remanere
se apud eum velle dixerunt. His Caesar libertatem concessit.
Germanico bello confecto multis de causis Caesar statuit sibi Rhenum
esse transeundum; quarum illa fuit iustissima quod, cum videret Germanos
tam facile impelli ut in Galliam venirent, suis quoque rebus eos timere
voluit, cum intellegerent et posse et audere populi Romani exercitum
Rhenum transire. Accessit etiam quod illa pars equitatus Usipetum et
Tencterorum, quam supra commemoravi praedandi frumentandi causa Mosam
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: two of the flower, and then shaded his eyes with his
hand and began to look down street as if he had dis-
covered something of interest going on in that direction.
Presently he picked up a straw and began trying to
balance it on his nose, with his head tilted far back;
and as he moved from side to side, in his efforts, he
edged nearer and nearer toward the pansy; finally his
bare foot rested upon it, his pliant toes closed upon it,
and he hopped away with the treasure and disappeared
round the corner. But only for a minute -- only while
he could button the flower inside his jacket, next his
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: thought he recognized the voice, as his sudden start had shown; and yet
he disbelieved his ears. She moved her head at that moment, and the
light streaming out from a lamp in the passage beat upon her white face.
"Ruth!" he cried, and came quickly forward. Trenchard, behind him,
looked on and scowled with sudden impatience. Mr. Wilding's
philanderings with this lady had never had the old rake's approval.
Too much trouble already had resulted from them.
"I must speak with you at once. At once!" she urged him, her tone
fearful.
"Are you in need of me?" he asked concernedly.
"In very urgent need," said she.
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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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: enemies in the dead of the night, without desiring any other
security for them than the hope of a noble success.
Now the enterprise, though dangerous enough in itself, was made
much more so by an error happening through mistake in the very
beginning. For Technon, one of Aratus's servants, was sent away
to Diocles, that they might together view the wall. Now he had
never seen Diocles, but made no question of knowing him by the
marks Erginus had given him of him; namely, that he had curly
hair, a swarthy complexion, and no beard. Being come,
therefore, to the appointed place, he stayed waiting for Erginus
and Diocles outside the town, in front of the place called
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