| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: sun year after year since the foundation of the world, taking no
heed of man, and all the coil which he keeps in the valleys far
below.
And even, to take a simpler instance, there are those who will
excuse, or even approve of, a writer for saying that, among the
memories of a month's eventful tour, those which stand out as
beacon-points, those round which all the others group themselves,
are the first wolf-track by the road-side in the Kyllwald; the
first sight of the blue and green Roller-birds, walking behind the
plough like rooks in the tobacco-fields of Wittlich; the first ball
of Olivine scraped out of the volcanic slag-heaps of the Dreisser-
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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 Cage by Henry James: liked to betray, to trip up, to bring down with words altered and
fatal; and all through a personal hostility provoked by the
lightest signs, by their accidents of tone and manner, by the
particular kind of relation she always happened instantly to feel.
There were impulses of various kinds, alternately soft and severe,
to which she was constitutionally accessible and which were
determined by the smallest accidents. She was rigid in general on
the article of making the public itself affix its stamps, and found
a special enjoyment in dealing to that end with some of the ladies
who were too grand to touch them. She had thus a play of
refinement and subtlety greater, she flattered herself, than any of
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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 Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: Hoopdriver felt a little less conscience-stricken, and a little
more of the gallant desperado. Here he was riding on a splendid
machine with a Slap-up girl beside him. What would they think of
it in the Emporium if any of them were to see him? He imagined in
detail the astonishment of Miss Isaacs and of Miss Howe. "Why!
It's Mr. Hoopdriver," Miss Isaacs would say. "Never!"
emphatically from Miss Howe. Then he played with Briggs, and then
tried the 'G.V.' in a shay. "Fancy introducing 'em to her--My
sister pro tem." He was her brother Chris--Chris what?--Confound
it! Harringon, Hartington--something like that. Have to keep off
that topic until he could remember. Wish he'd told her the truth
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: of-war.
When we were thus got to sea, we kept on NE., as if we would go to
the Manillas or the Philippine Islands; and this we did that we
might not fall into the way of any of the European ships; and then
we steered north, till we came to the latitude of 22 degrees 30
seconds, by which means we made the island of Formosa directly,
where we came to an anchor, in order to get water and fresh
provisions, which the people there, who are very courteous in their
manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and
punctually with us in all their agreements and bargains. This is
what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the
Robinson Crusoe |
