| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: do? The feelings of Sophia were at that time so exquisite, and
the tenderness she felt for Augustus so poignant that I had not
power to start any other topic, justly fearing that it might in
some unforseen manner again awaken all her sensibility by
directing her thoughts to her Husband. Yet to be silent would be
cruel; she had intreated me to talk.
From this Dilemma I was most fortunately releived by an accident
truly apropos; it was the lucky overturning of a Gentleman's
Phaeton, on the road which ran murmuring behind us. It was a
most fortunate accident as it diverted the attention of Sophia
from the melancholy reflections which she had been before
Love and Friendship |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: his childhood, his style was oppressively monotonous. Agatha took
the first excuse that presented itself to leave the piano. Sir
Charles felt that his performance had been a failure, and
remarked, after a cough or two, that he had caught a touch of
cold returning from the station. Erskine sat on a sofa with his
head drooping, and his palms joined and hanging downward between
his knees. Agatha stood at the window, looking at the late summer
afterglow. Jane yawned, and presently broke the silence.
"You look exactly as you used at school, Agatha. I could almost
fancy us back again in Number Six."
Agatha shook her head.
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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 Tanach: 2_Chronicles 26: 4 And he did that, which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.
2_Chronicles 26: 5 And he set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.
2_Chronicles 26: 6 And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the country of Ashdod, and among the Philistines.
2_Chronicles 26: 7 And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gur-baal, and the Meunim.
2_Chronicles 26: 8 And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah; and his name spread abroad even to the entrance of Egypt; for he waxed exceeding strong.
2_Chronicles 26: 9 Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the Turning, and fortified them.
2_Chronicles 26: 10 And be built towers in the wilderness, and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle; in the Lowland also, and in the table-land; and he had husbandmen and vinedressers in the mountains and in the fruitful fields; for he loved husbandry.
2_Chronicles 26: 11 Moreover Uzziah had an army of fighting men, that went out to war by bands, according to the number of their reckoning made by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king's captains.
The Tanach |
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 Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: sake of individual ends. For him, even external nature obeys
individual needs and claims, just as if these were so many
elementary powers. Now science, on the other hand, these
positivists say, has proved that personality, so far from being
an elementary force in nature, is but a passive resultant of the
really elementary forces, physical, chemical, physiological, and
psycho-physical, which are all impersonal and general in
character. Nothing individual accomplishes anything in the
universe save in so far as it obeys and exemplifies some
universal law. Should you then inquire of them by what means
science has thus supplanted primitive thought, and discredited
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