| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: sense of its growing more and more crimson. All the evening at
home - he went straight to his rooms and remained there dinnerless
- his cheek burned at intervals as if it had been smitten. He
didn't understand what had happened to him, what trick had been
played him, what treachery practised. "None, none," he said to
himself. "I've nothing to do with it. I'm out of it - it s none
of my business." But that bewildered murmur was followed again and
again by the incongruous ejaculation: "Was it a plan - was it a
plan?" Sometimes he cried to himself, breathless, "Have I been
duped, sold, swindled?" If at all, he was an absurd, an abject
victim. It was as if he hadn't lost her till now. He had
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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 Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: it? Who could it be? It couldn't be a burglar, certainly not a burglar,
for he was smoking and he strolled lightly. Beryl's heart leapt; it seemed
to turn right over, and then to stop. She recognized him.
"Good evening, Miss Beryl," said the voice softly.
"Good evening."
"Won't you come for a little walk?" it drawled.
Come for a walk--at that time of night! "I couldn't. Everybody's in bed.
Everybody's asleep."
"Oh," said the voice lightly, and a whiff of sweet smoke reached her.
"What does everybody matter? Do come! It's such a fine night. There's
not a soul about."
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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 Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!'
The shoemaker heard him, and he jumped up and ran out in his shirt-
sleeves, and stood looking up at the bird on the roof with his hand
over his eyes to keep himself from being blinded by the sun.
'Bird,' he said, 'how beautifully you sing!' Then he called through
the door to his wife: 'Wife, come out; here is a bird, come and look
at it and hear how beautifully it sings.' Then he called his daughter
and the children, then the apprentices, girls and boys, and they all
ran up the street to look at the bird, and saw how splendid it was
with its red and green feathers, and its neck like burnished gold, and
eyes like two bright stars in its head.
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: soon to be head of the University, was at their side; and by means
of him the family appear to have had access to much Italian
society. To the end, Fleeming professed his admiration of the
Piedmontese and his unalterable confidence in the future of Italy
under their conduct; for Victor Emanuel, Cavour, the first La
Marmora and Garibaldi, he had varying degrees of sympathy and
praise: perhaps highest for the King, whose good sense and temper
filled him with respect - perhaps least for Garibaldi, whom he
loved but yet mistrusted.
But this is to look forward: these were the days not of Victor
Emanuel but of Charles Albert; and it was on Charles Albert that
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