| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: the strange noises under the ice. He lay a long time to rest on the
grass, after he had got over, and began to climb the hill just in
the hottest part of the clay. When he had climbed for an hour, he
got dreadfully thirsty and was going to drink like his brothers,
when he saw an old man coming down the path above him, looking very
feeble and leaning on a staff. "Why son," said the old man, "I
am faint with thirst; give me some of that water." Then Gluck
looked at him, and when he saw that he was pale and weary, he gave
him the water. "Only pray don't drink it all," said Gluck. But
the old man drank a great deal and gave him back the bottle two
thirds empty. Then he bade him good speed, and Gluck went on again
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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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: anecdotes of the extraordinary absentmindedness of certain old
professors, and two or three witticisms variously ascribed to
Gruber, to me, and to Babukin. For the educated public that is
not much. If it loved science, learned men, and students, as
Nikolay does, its literature would long ago have contained whole
epics, records of sayings and doings such as, unfortunately, it
cannot boast of now.
After telling me a piece of news, Nikolay assumes a severe
expression, and conversation about business begins. If any
outsider could at such times overhear Nikolay's free use of our
terminology, he might perhaps imagine that he was a learned man
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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 The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: Brigitte.
"And ought we not," added Madame Thuillier, timidly, "to let her marry
according to her own taste, so as to be happy?"
The poor woman had detected in Felix Phellion a true love for Celeste;
the love that a woman crushed by Brigitte and wounded by her husband's
indifference (for Thuillier cared less for his wife than he did for a
servant) had dreamed that love might be,--bold in heart, timid
externally, sure of itself, reserved, hidden from others, but
expanding toward heaven. At twenty-three years of age, Felix Phellion
was a gentle, pure-minded young man, like all true scholars who
cultivate knowledge for knowledge's sake. He had been sacredly brought
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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 Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: To accessary yieldings, but still pure
Doth in her poison'd closet yet endure.'
Lo, here, the hopeless merchant of this loss,
With head declin'd, and voice damm'd up with woe,
With sad set eyes, and wretched arms across,
From lips new-waxen pale begins to blow
The grief away that stops his answer so:
But wretched as he is he strives in vain;
What he breathes out his breath drinks up again.
As through an arch the violent roaring tide
Outruns the eye that doth behold his haste;
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