| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: well as I could.
I was at a loss what to do, for I durst not return to the same
landing-place, but stood to the north, and was forced to paddle,
for the wind, though very gentle, was against me, blowing
north-west. As I was looking about for a secure landing-place, I
saw a sail to the north-north-east, which appearing every minute
more visible, I was in some doubt whether I should wait for them
or not; but at last my detestation of the YAHOO race prevailed:
and turning my canoe, I sailed and paddled together to the south,
and got into the same creek whence I set out in the morning,
choosing rather to trust myself among these barbarians, than live
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: or it might have been anything, for Kotuko and the girl were
so starved that their eyes were untrustworthy. They had trapped
nothing, and seen no trace of game since they had left the
village; their food would not hold out for another week,
and there was a gale coming. A Polar storm can blow for ten days
without a break, and all that while it is certain death to be
abroad. Kotuko laid up a snow-house large enough to take in the
hand-sleigh (never be separated from your meat), and while he
was shaping the last irregular block of ice that makes the
key-stone of the roof, he saw a Thing looking at him from a
little cliff of ice half a mile away. The air was hazy, and the
The Second Jungle Book |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: communication, and, when the interior of the lighthouse came
to be examined in the morning, it appeared that great
quantities of water had come over the walls - now eighty feet
in height - and had run down through the several apartments
and out at the entrance door.
The upper course of the lighthouse at the workyard of
Arbroath was completed on the 6th, and the whole of the stones
were, therefore, now ready for being shipped to the rock.
From the present state of the works it was impossible that the
two squads of artificers at Arbroath and the Bell Rock could
meet together at this period; and as in public works of this
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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 Heroes by Charles Kingsley: you may slay her, my enemy, the mother of monstrous beasts.
Once she was a maiden as beautiful as morn, till in her pride
she sinned a sin at which the sun hid his face; and from that
day her hair was turned to vipers, and her hands to eagle's
claws; and her heart was filled with shame and rage, and her
lips with bitter venom; and her eyes became so terrible that
whosoever looks on them is turned to stone; and her children
are the winged horse and the giant of the golden sword; and
her grandchildren are Echidna the witch-adder, and Geryon the
three-headed tyrant, who feeds his herds beside the herds of
hell. So she became the sister of the Gorgons, Stheino and
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