| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: The entire area was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the
largest of the harbours were full of vessels and merchants coming from all
parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human
voices, and din and clatter of all sorts night and day.
I have described the city and the environs of the ancient palace nearly in
the words of Solon, and now I must endeavour to represent to you the nature
and arrangement of the rest of the land. The whole country was said by him
to be very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country
immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself
surrounded by mountains which descended towards the sea; it was smooth and
even, and of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand
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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 Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: "Capital pun that!"
"No, puncheons. About that wine--"
"Better and better! why, you are a wit."
"Yes, I'm that," said the fool. "Come out and see my vineyards."
"Willingly, the wine is getting into my head," said the illustrious
Gaudissart, following Monsieur Margaritis, who marched him from row to
row and hillock to hillock among the vines. The three ladies and
Monsieur Vernier, left to themselves, went off into fits of laughter
as they watched the traveller and the lunatic discussing,
gesticulating, stopping short, resuming their walk, and talking
vehemently.
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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 Richard III by William Shakespeare: GLOUCESTER. [Aside] So wise so young, they say, do never
live long.
PRINCE. What say you, uncle?
GLOUCESTER. I say, without characters, fame lives long.
[Aside] Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,
I moralize two meanings in one word.
PRINCE. That Julius Caesar was a famous man;
With what his valour did enrich his wit,
His wit set down to make his valour live.
Death makes no conquest of this conqueror;
For now he lives in fame, though not in life.
Richard III |
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 Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: always dressed exactly alike, too, in silken fabric of bluish
lavender, like myrtle blossoms. Some of the poetical souls in the
village called the Lancaster sisters "The ladies in lavender."
There was an astonishing change in the treatment of the blue and
white bundle when the sisters and Eudora were in the stately old
sitting-room, with its heavy mahogany furniture and its
white-wainscoted calls. Amelia simply tossed the bundle into a
corner of the sofa; then the sisters all sat in a loving circle
around Eudora.
"Are you sure you are not utterly worn out, dear?" asked Amelia,
tenderly; and the others repeated the question in exactly the
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