| 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: more you have to say.
SOCRATES: You do, then, mean, as I was saying, to come forward in a little
while in the character of an adviser of the Athenians? And suppose that
when you are ascending the bema, I pull you by the sleeve and say,
Alcibiades, you are getting up to advise the Athenians--do you know the
matter about which they are going to deliberate, better than they?--How
would you answer?
ALCIBIADES: I should reply, that I was going to advise them about a matter
which I do know better than they.
SOCRATES: Then you are a good adviser about the things which you know?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: The king is no such economist. He is greedy of things new and
foreign. House after house, chest after chest, in the palace
precinct, is already crammed with clocks, musical boxes, blue
spectacles, umbrellas, knitted waistcoats, bolts of stuff, tools,
rifles, fowling-pieces, medicines, European foods, sewing-machines,
and, what is more extraordinary, stoves: all that ever caught his
eye, tickled his appetite, pleased him for its use, or puzzled him
with its apparent inutility. And still his lust is unabated. He
is possessed by the seven devils of the collector. He hears a
thing spoken of, and a shadow comes on his face. 'I think I no got
him,' he will say; and the treasures he has seem worthless in
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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 An International Episode by Henry James: by submitting, with great docility and thankfulness, to her husband.
He was evidently a very good fellow, and he made an impression upon
his visitors; his hospitality seemed to recommend itself consciously--
with a friendly wink, as it were--as if it hinted, judicially, that you
could not possibly make a better bargain. Lord Lambeth and his cousin
left their entertainer to his labors and returned to their hotel,
where they spent three or four hours in their respective shower baths.
Percy Beaumont had suggested that they ought to see something of
the town; but "Oh, damn the town!" his noble kinsman had rejoined.
They returned to Mr. Westgate's office in a carriage, with their luggage,
very punctually; but it must be reluctantly recorded that, this time,
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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 Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: On returning to his hotel he found Jacques Bricheteau awaiting him.
"Where the devil have you been?" cried the organist, impatiently. "It
is too late now to take the steamboat."
"Well," said Sallenauve, carelessly, "then I shall have a few hours
longer to play truant."
"But during that time your enemies are tunnelling their mine."
"I don't care. In that cave called political life one has to be ready
for anything."
"I thought as much!" exclaimed Bricheteau. "You have been to see
Luigia; her success has turned your head, and the deputy is thinking
of his statues."
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