| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: Aulis, even as Agamemnon had offered sacrifice in that place ere he
set sail for Troy. But when he had reached the place and had begun to
sacrifice, the Boeotarchs[5] being apprised of his design, sent a body
of cavalry and bade him desist from further sacrificing;[6] and
lighting upon victims already offered, they hurled them from off the
altars, scattering the fragments. Then Agesilaus, calling the gods to
witness, got on board his trireme in bitter indignation, and sailed
away. Arrived at Geraestus, he there collected as large a portion of
his troops as possible, and with the armada made sail for Ephesus.
[3] "Pol. Lac." xiii. 2 foll.
[4] Or, "To the several cities he had already despatched messengers
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: are always so tedious? My father would talk morality after dinner.
I told him he was old enough to know better. But my experience is
that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't
know anything at all. Hallo, Tuppy! Hear you're going to be
married again; thought you were tired of that game.
LORD AUGUSTUS. You're excessively trivial, my dear boy,
excessively trivial!
CECIL GRAHAM. By the way, Tuppy, which is it? Have you been twice
married and once divorced, or twice divorced and once married? I
say you've been twice divorced and once married. It seems so much
more probable.
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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 Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: over as if they were choosing a prep school for me, and finally said,
"Why--ye--es," with very grave, hesitant faces. Father agreed to finance
me for a year, and after various delays I came East, permanently, I
thought, in the spring of twenty-two.
The practical thing was to find rooms in the city, but it was a warm
season, and I had just left a country of wide lawns and friendly trees,
so when a young man at the office suggested that we take a house
together in a commuting town, it sounded like a great idea. He found
the house, a weather-beaten cardboard bungalow at eighty a month, but
at the last minute the firm ordered him to Washington, and I went out
to the country alone. I had a dog--at least I had him for a few days
The Great Gatsby |
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 Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: There are violent passions which drive a man to good or evil, making
of him a hero or a convict; of these there was not one that had failed
to leave its traces on the grandly-hewn, lividly Italian face. You
trembled lest a flash of thought should suddenly light up the deep
sightless hollows under the grizzled brows, as you might fear to see
brigands with torches and poniards in the mouth of a cavern. You felt
that there was a lion in that cage of flesh, a lion spent with useless
raging against iron bars. The fires of despair had burned themselves
out into ashes, the lava had cooled; but the tracks of the flames, the
wreckage, and a little smoke remained to bear witness to the violence
of the eruption, the ravages of the fire. These images crowded up at
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