| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: aunt looked at the witness. "Not--?" she framed a question.
"Wuss," said my uncle. "Blarsphemy."
My aunt couldn't touch another mouthful. I was already a little
troubled in my conscience by my daring, and now I began to feel
the black enormity of the course upon which I had embarked.
"I was only talking sense," I said.
I had a still more dreadful moment when presently I met my cousin
in the brick alley behind the yard, that led back to his grocer's
shop.
"You sneak!" I said, and smacked his face hard forthwith. "Now
then," said I.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: of the Achaeans in counsel. Would, by Father Jove, Minerva, and
Apollo, that I had among them ten more such councillors, for the
city of King Priam would then soon fall beneath our hands, and we
should sack it. But the son of Saturn afflicts me with bootless
wranglings and strife. Achilles and I are quarrelling about this
girl, in which matter I was the first to offend; if we can be of
one mind again, the Trojans will not stave off destruction for a
day. Now, therefore, get your morning meal, that our hosts join
in fight. Whet well your spears; see well to the ordering of your
shields; give good feeds to your horses, and look your chariots
carefully over, that we may do battle the livelong day; for we
The Iliad |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Koran: And when he came to it he was called to, from the right side of
the wady, in the blessed valley, out of the tree, 'O Moses! verily,
I am God the Lord of the worlds; so throw down thy rod;' and when he
saw it quivering as though it were a snake, he turned away and fled
and did not return. 'O Moses! approach and fear not, verily, thou
art amongst the safe. Thrust thy hand into thy bosom, it shall come
out white, without hurt; and then fold again thy wing, that thou
dost now stretch out through dread; for those are two signs from thy
Lord to Pharaoh and his chiefs; verily, they are a people who work
abomination!'
Said he, 'My Lord! verily, I have killed a person amongst them,
The Koran |
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 The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: says.
"You remember I told you that me and Andy Tucker was partners for some
years. That man was the most talented conniver at stratagems I ever
saw. Whenever he saw a dollar in another man's hands he took it as a
personal grudge, if he couldn't take it any other way. Andy was
educated, too, besides having a lot of useful information. He had
acquired a big amount of experience out of books, and could talk for
hours on any subject connected with ideas and discourse. He had been
in every line of graft from lecturing on Palestine with a lot of magic
lantern pictures of the annual Custom-made Clothiers' Association
convention at Atlantic City to flooding Connecticut with bogus wood
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