| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: Podgers in the world. His better nature, however, soon asserted
itself, and even when Sybil flung herself weeping into his arms, he
did not falter. The beauty that stirred his senses had touched his
conscience also. He felt that to wreck so fair a life for the sake
of a few months' pleasure would be a wrong thing to do.
He stayed with Sybil till nearly midnight, comforting her and being
comforted in turn, and early the next morning he left for Venice,
after writing a manly, firm letter to Mr. Merton about the
necessary postponement of the marriage.
CHAPTER IV
IN Venice he met his brother, Lord Surbiton, who happened to have
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: hard between his hoof and his pastern, that I was forced to roar;
after which they both touched me with all possible tenderness.
They were under great perplexity about my shoes and stockings,
which they felt very often, neighing to each other, and using
various gestures, not unlike those of a philosopher, when he
would attempt to solve some new and difficult phenomenon.
Upon the whole, the behaviour of these animals was so orderly and
rational, so acute and judicious, that I at last concluded they
must needs be magicians, who had thus metamorphosed themselves
upon some design, and seeing a stranger in the way, resolved to
divert themselves with him; or, perhaps, were really amazed at
Gulliver's Travels |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: possible for any man to write well about it, or to understand
well what is rightly written, who has not at some time tasted of
its spirit, under the pressure of tribulation; while he who has
tasted of it, even to a very small extent, can never write,
speak, think, or hear about it sufficiently. For it is a living
fountain, springing up into eternal life, as Christ calls it in
John iv.
Now, though I cannot boast of my abundance, and though I know how
poorly I am furnished, yet I hope that, after having been vexed
by various temptations, I have attained some little drop of
faith, and that I can speak of this matter, if not with more
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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 A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: his troops; Apia, from which alone these could be subsisted, in the
hands of the enemy; a battle imminent, in which the German vessel
must apparently take part with men and battery, and the buildings
of the German firm were apparently destined to be the first target
of fire. Unless Becker re-established that which he had so lately
and so artfully thrown down - the neutral territory - the firm
would have to suffer. If he re-established it, Tamasese must
retire from Mulinuu. If Becker saved his goose, he lost his
cabbage. Nothing so well depicts the man's effrontery as that he
should have conceived the design of saving both, - of re-
establishing only so much of the neutral territory as should hamper
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