| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: Reuben Goldstein met a tall Englishman, on the road, close by here
this evening."
"Did you speak to him?"
"He spoke to us, your Excellency. He wanted to know if he
could hire a horse and cart to go down along the St. Martin road, to a
place he wanted to reach to-night."
"What did you say?"
"I did not say anything," said the Jew in an injured tone,
"Reuben Goldstein, that accursed traitor, that son of Belial. . ."
"Cut that short, man," interrupted Chauvelin, roughly, "and go
on with your story."
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: Ought it not?--Or affirmatively,--It is; It was; It ought to be. Or
chronologically,--Has it been always? Lately? How long ago?--Or
hypothetically,--If it was? If it was not? What would follow?--If the
French should beat the English? If the Sun go out of the Zodiac?
Now, by the right use and application of these, continued my father, in
which a child's memory should be exercised, there is no one idea can enter
his brain, how barren soever, but a magazine of conceptions and conclusions
may be drawn forth from it.--Didst thou ever see a white bear? cried my
father, turning his head round to Trim, who stood at the back of his
chair:--No, an' please your honour, replied the corporal.--But thou couldst
discourse about one, Trim, said my father, in case of need?--How is it
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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 Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: my work goes, I think we got something like the spirit of it.
What I said about that was near the truth of things. . . .
"But there is another set of motives altogether, "Sir
Richmond went on with an air of having cleared the ground for
his real business, "that I didn't go into at all yesterday."
He considered. "It arises out of these other affairs. Before
you realize it your affections are involved. I am a man much
swayed by my affections."
Mr. Martineau glanced at him. There was a note of genuine
self-reproach in Sir Richmond's voice.
"I get fond of people. It is quite irrational, but I get fond
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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 Charmides by Plato: relative and antecedent less ambiguous: partly also the greater number of
demonstrative and relative pronouns, and the use of the article, make the
correlation of ideas simpler and more natural. The Greek appears to have
had an ear or intelligence for a long and complicated sentence which is
rarely to be found in modern nations; and in order to bring the Greek down
to the level of the modern, we must break up the long sentence into two or
more short ones. Neither is the same precision required in Greek as in
Latin or English, nor in earlier Greek as in later; there was nothing
shocking to the contemporary of Thucydides and Plato in anacolutha and
repetitions. In such cases the genius of the English language requires
that the translation should be more intelligible than the Greek. The want
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