| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry: at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself
as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty
toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope.
We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the
song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part
of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not,
and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their
temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost,
I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: So we then can discuss how we shall act, and can take
our measure according.
"There are such beings as vampires, some of us have evidence that
they exist. Even had we not the proof of our own unhappy experience,
the teachings and the records of the past give proof enough
for sane peoples. I admit that at the first I was sceptic.
Were it not that through long years I have trained myself
to keep an open mind, I could not have believed until
such time as that fact thunder on my ear.`See! See!
I prove, I prove.' Alas! Had I known at first what now
I know, nay, had I even guess at him, one so precious
Dracula |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: stood huddled together. Then they were pulled closer together than
before--closer, and still closer--for the prince and Nerle had
surrounded them with the rope and were tying the two ends together in
a tight knot. The rope cut into the waists of those on the outside,
and they pressed inward against their fellows until there was scarcely
space to stick a knife-blade between any two of them. When the prince
had tied the rope firmly King Terribus, who had been looking on
amazed, saw that his hundred Gray Men were fastened together like a
bundle of kindling-wood, and were unable to stir hand or foot.
And, while he still gazed open-mouthed at the strange sight, Prince
Marvel tilted the bundle of men up on its edge and rolled it out of
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
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 Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: CHAPTER XIII.
THE ISLAND AND THE WRECK.
All hands were filled with joy. It was betrayed in their alacrity
and easy faces: Johnson smiling broadly at the wheel, Nares
studying the sketch chart of the island with an eye at peace, and
the hands clustered forward, eagerly talking and pointing: so
manifest was our escape, so wonderful the attraction of a single
foot of earth after so many suns had set and risen on an empty
sea. To add to the relief, besides, by one of those malicious
coincidences which suggest for fate the image of an underbred
and grinning schoolboy, we had no sooner worn ship than the
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