| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: act of exchanging glances of astonishment at his taste. " I keep
a drawing-room of the usual kind for receiving strangers with
whom it is necessary to be conventional, but I never enter it
except on such occasions. What do you think of this for a study?"
"On my soul, Trefusis, I think you are mad," said Sir Charles.
"The place looks as if it had stood a siege. How did you manage
to break the statues and chip the walls so outrageously?"
Trefusis took a newspaper from the table and said, "Listen to
this:
'In spite of the unfavorable nature of the weather, the sport of
the Emperor and his guests in Styria has been successful. In
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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 Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: contract and sale) all masses and good works, etc., both for
the living and the dead. This is not only altogether a human
bauble, without the Word of God, entirely unnecessary and not
commanded, but also contrary to the chief article, Of
Redemption. Therefore it is in no way to be tolerated.
Fifthly. The relics, in which there are found so many
falsehoods and tomfooleries concerning the bones of dogs and
horses, that even the devil has laughed at such rascalities,
ought long ago to have been condemned, even though there were
some good in them; and so much the more because they are
without the Word of God; being neither commanded nor
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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 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Bourgh drove by in her phaeton, which he never failed coming
to inform them of, though it happened almost every day. She
not unfrequently stopped at the Parsonage, and had a few
minutes' conversation with Charlotte, but was scarcely ever
prevailed upon to get out.
Very few days passed in which Mr. Collins did not walk to
Rosings, and not many in which his wife did not think it
necessary to go likewise; and till Elizabeth recollected that there
might be other family livings to be disposed of, she could not
understand the sacrifice of so many hours. Now and then they
were honoured with a call from her ladyship, and nothing
Pride and Prejudice |
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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: the virtues of tar-water. Into this book, however, Vesalius
introduced--as Bishop Berkeley did not--much, and perhaps too much,
about himself; and much, though perhaps not too much, about poor old
Galen, and his substitution of an ape's inside for that of a human
being. The storm which had been long gathering burst upon him. The
old school, trembling for their time-honoured reign, bespattered,
with all that pedantry, ignorance, and envy could suggest, the man
who dared not only to revolutionise surgery, but to interfere with
the privileged mysteries of medicine; and, over and above, to become
a greater favourite at the court of the greatest of monarchs. While
such as Eustachius, himself an able discoverer, could join in the
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