| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: disgraceful, that we should not have as high a notion of what is required
in us as our enemies' wives and mothers have of the qualities which are
required in their assailants! O my friend, be persuaded by me, and hear
the Delphian inscription, 'Know thyself'--not the men whom you think, but
these kings are our rivals, and we can only overcome them by pains and
skill. And if you fail in the required qualities, you will fail also in
becoming renowned among Hellenes and Barbarians, which you seem to desire
more than any other man ever desired anything.
ALCIBIADES: I entirely believe you; but what are the sort of pains which
are required, Socrates,--can you tell me?
SOCRATES: Yes, I can; but we must take counsel together concerning the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: He and his wife had taken their intended drive, and were returning home.
Upon hearing how long a walk the young people had engaged in,
they kindly offered a seat to any lady who might be particularly tired;
it would save her a full mile, and they were going through Uppercross.
The invitation was general, and generally declined. The Miss Musgroves
were not at all tired, and Mary was either offended, by not being asked
before any of the others, or what Louisa called the Elliot pride
could not endure to make a third in a one horse chaise.
The walking party had crossed the lane, and were surmounting an
opposite stile, and the Admiral was putting his horse in motion again,
when Captain Wentworth cleared the hedge in a moment to say something
Persuasion |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: They found a great deal of entertainment at the hotel, an enormous
wooden structure, for the erection of which it seemed to them that
the virgin forests of the West must have been terribly deflowered.
It was perforated from end to end with immense bare corridors,
through which a strong draught was blowing--bearing along
wonderful figures of ladies in white morning dresses and clouds
of Valenciennes lace, who seemed to float down the long vistas
with expanded furbelows, like angels spreading their wings.
In front was a gigantic veranda, upon which an army might have encamped--
a vast wooden terrace, with a roof as lofty as the nave of a cathedral.
Here our young Englishmen enjoyed, as they supposed, a glimpse
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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 Ursula by Honore de Balzac: with them to the grave the secret of their lives; letting no one guess
it,--through pride, through disdain, possibly through revenge;
confiding in none but God, without other consolation than his.
Monsieur de Jordy, like the doctor, had come to die in Nemours, but he
knew no one except the abbe, who was always at the beck and call of
his parishioners, and Madame de Portenduere, who went to bed at nine
o'clock. So, much against his will, he too had taken to going to bed
early, in spite of the thorns that beset his pillow. It was therefore
a great piece of good fortune for him (as well as for the doctor) when
he encountered a man who had known the same world and spoken the same
language as himself; with whom he could exchange ideas, and who went
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