| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereigne Lord, King James,
by the Grace of God, of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland,
King, Defender of the Faith, &c.
Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of
the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country,
a Voyage to plant the first colony in the Northerne Parts
of Virginia; doe, by these Presents, solemnly and mutually
in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and
combine ourselves together into a civill Body Politick,
for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance
of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: capacity for ideas, they don't catch on; no Jump about the place,
no Life. Live!--they trickle, and what one has to do here is to
trickle too-- Zzzz."
"Ah!" said my mother.
"It doesn't suit me," said my uncle. "I'm the cascading sort."
"George was that," said my mother after a pondering moment.
My aunt Susan took up the parable with an affectionate glance at
her husband.
"He's always trying to make his old business jump," she said.
"Always putting fresh cards in the window, or getting up to
something. You'd hardly believe. It makes ME jump sometimes."
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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 Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: until she paused beside the great dragon, who lay
fast asleep.
"Wake up, Quox!" she cried. "It is time for you
to act."
But Quox did not wake up. He lay as one in a
trance, absolutely motionless, with his enormous
eyes tight closed. The eyelids had big silver
scales on them, like all the rest of his body.
Polychrome might have thought Quox was dead had
she not known that dragons do not die easily or
had she not observed his huge body swelling as he
Tik-Tok of Oz |
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 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: at Mansfield, whose character and manners could authorise
a hope of the domestic happiness she had there learned
to estimate, or put Edmund Bertram sufficiently out of her head.
Edmund had greatly the advantage of her in this respect.
He had not to wait and wish with vacant affections for an
object worthy to succeed her in them. Scarcely had he
done regretting Mary Crawford, and observing to Fanny
how impossible it was that he should ever meet with such
another woman, before it began to strike him whether
a very different kind of woman might not do just as well,
or a great deal better: whether Fanny herself were not
Mansfield Park |
