| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: wrapped up in their military cloaks under which their swords
were hidden, and Planchet, his musket by his side. They were
waiting at the entrance of the Rue Sainte Catharine, and
their horses were fastened to the rings of the arcade.
Athos, therefore, commanded Bazin to fasten up his horse and
that of Aramis in the same manner.
They then advanced two and two, and saluted each other
politely.
"Now where will it be agreeable to you that we hold our
conference?" inquired Aramis, perceiving that people were
stopping to look at them, supposing that they were going to
Twenty Years After |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: reeled as he walked, and stared about him like a drunken man.
"Miserable aristocrat! Do you want to have our heads cut off?" he
shouted furiously. "You just take to your heels and never show
yourself here again. Don't come to me for materials for your plots."
He tried, as he spoke, to take away the little box which she had
slipped into one of her pockets. But at the touch of a profane hand on
her clothes, the stranger recovered youth and activity for a moment,
preferring to face the dangers of the street with no protector save
God, to the loss of the thing she had just paid for. She sprang to the
door, flung it open, and disappeared, leaving the husband and wife
dumfounded and quaking with fright.
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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 Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: me what YOU call yourself?' she said timidly. `I think that
might help a little.'
`I'll tell you, if you'll move a little further on,' the Fawn said.
`I can't remember here.'
So they walked on together though the wood, Alice with her arms
clasped lovingly round the soft neck of the Fawn, till they came
out into another open field, and here the Fawn gave a sudden
bound into the air, and shook itself free from Alice's arms.
`I'm a Fawn!' it cried out in a voice of delight, `and, dear me!
you're a human child!' A sudden look of alarm came into its
beautiful brown eyes, and in another moment it had darted away at
Through the Looking-Glass |
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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: of luxury and power and rich estates and alliances of marriage
with absolute princes. He that neither praises Philistus for
his conduct, nor insults over his misfortunes, seems to me to
take the fittest course.
After Philistus's death, Dionysius sent to Dion, offering to
surrender the castle, all the arms, provisions, and
garrison-soldiers, with full pay for them for five months,
demanding in return that he might have safe conduct to go
unmolested into Italy, and there to continue, and also to enjoy
the revenues of Gyarta, a large and fruitful territory belonging
to Syracuse, reaching from the sea-side to the middle of the
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