| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Before Adam by Jack London: one night with us, so the accident must have happened
right away.
It came in the middle of the day. In the morning we
had eaten our fill of the carrots, and then, made
heedless by play, we had ventured on to the big trees
just beyond. I cannot understand how Lop-Ear got over
his habitual caution, but it must have been the play.
We were having a great time playing tree tag. And such
tag! We leaped ten or fifteen-foot gaps as a matter of
course. And a twenty or twenty-five foot deliberate
drop clear down to the ground was nothing to us. 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 Othello by William Shakespeare: Enter a Gentleman.
3 Newes Laddes: our warres are done:
The desperate Tempest hath so bang'd the Turkes,
That their designement halts. A Noble ship of Venice,
Hath seene a greeuous wracke and sufferance
On most part of their Fleet
Mon. How? Is this true?
3 The Ship is heere put in: A Verennessa, Michael Cassio
Lieutenant to the warlike Moore, Othello,
Is come on Shore: the Moore himselfe at Sea,
And is in full Commission heere for Cyprus
Othello |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: independent Chief in the Highlands."
"I will not reply to you, my lord," said Sir Duncan Campbell,
"because I know your prejudices, and from whom they are borrowed;
yet you will pardon my saying, that being at the head of a rival
branch of the House of Graham, I have both read of and known an
Earl of Menteith, who would have disdained to have been tutored
in politics, or to have been commanded in war, by an Earl of
Montrose."
"You will find it in vain, Sir Duncan," said Lord Menteith,
haughtily, "to set my vanity in arms against my principles. The
King gave my ancestors their title and rank; and these shall
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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 Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: "And what do you say to the Virgin?"
"I talk to her as I talk to Lucien, with all my soul, till I make him
cry."
"Oh, so he cries?"
"With joy," said she eagerly, "poor dear boy! We understand each other
so well that we have but one soul! He is so nice, so fond, so sweet in
heart and mind and manners! He says he is a poet; I say he is god.--
Forgive me! You priests, you see, don't know what love is. But, in
fact, only girls like me know enough of men to appreciate such as
Lucien. A Lucien, you see, is as rare as a woman without sin. When you
come across him you can love no one else; so there! But such a being
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