| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: But we went. The house was shattered as if a shell had
exploded inside. Most of it had gone overboard--stove,
men's quarters, and their property, all was gone; but
two posts, holding a portion of the bulkhead to which
Abraham's bunk was attached, remained as if by a mir-
acle. We groped in the ruins and came upon this, and
there he was, sitting in his bunk, surrounded by foam and
wreckage, jabbering cheerfully to himself. He was out
of his mind; completely and for ever mad, with this
sudden shock coming upon the fag-end of his endurance.
We snatched him up, lugged him aft, and pitched him
Youth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: and he turned and pointed at the white and green villa on the hillside,
which seemed to have its eyes shut.
"That's not a light burning, is it?" Helen asked anxiously.
"It's the sun," said St. John. The upper windows had each a spot
of gold on them.
"I was afraid it was my husband, still reading Greek," she said.
"All this time he's been editing _Pindar_."
They passed through the town and turned up the steep road,
which was perfectly clear, though still unbordered by shadows.
Partly because they were tired, and partly because the early light
subdued them, they scarcely spoke, but breathed in the delicious
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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 A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: outhouse belonging to his workhouse, where he only lay upon straw,
with some biscuit-sacks, or bread-sacks, as they called them, laid
upon it, and some of the same sacks to cover him.
Here they resolved (seeing all employment being at an end, and no
work or wages to be had), they would make the best of their way to
get out of the reach of the dreadful infection, and, being as good
husbands as they could, would endeavour to live upon what they had
as long as it would last, and then work for more if they could get work
anywhere, of any kind, let it be what it would.
While they were considering to put this resolution in practice in the
best manner they could, the third man, who was acquainted very well
A Journal of the Plague Year |
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 Philebus by Plato: infinite, and are liable to every species of excess. And here several
questions arise for consideration:--What is the meaning of pure and impure,
of moderate and immoderate? We may answer the question by an illustration:
Purity of white paint consists in the clearness or quality of the white,
and this is distinct from the quantity or amount of white paint; a little
pure white is fairer than a great deal which is impure. But there is
another question:--Pleasure is affirmed by ingenious philosophers to be a
generation; they say that there are two natures--one self-existent, the
other dependent; the one noble and majestic, the other failing in both
these qualities. 'I do not understand.' There are lovers and there are
loves. 'Yes, I know, but what is the application?' The argument is in
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