| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: "I'm making it thirty dollars an acre," he explained.
"That's fair," conceded the banker, "though the time will come
when it will be cheap at a hundred and a half. There's coal under
all this county, millions of dollars' worth waiting to be mined."
"Maybe," assented Martin, laconically.
As he sat in the dingy, little backroom of the bank, while
Robinson's pen scratched busily drawing up the papers, he was
conscious of an odd thrill. The land--it was all his own! But
with this thrill welled a wave of resentment over what he
considered a preposterous imposition. Who had made the land into
a farm? What had Nellie ever put into it that it should be half
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: dreadful peal of thunder shook the house, a strain of unearthly
music floated through the air, a panel at the top of the staircase
flew back with a loud noise, and out on the landing, looking very
pale and white, with a little casket in her hand, stepped Virginia.
In a moment they had all rushed up to her. Mrs. Otis clasped her
passionately in her arms, the Duke smothered her with violent
kisses, and the twins executed a wild war-dance round the group.
'Good heavens! child, where have you been?' said Mr. Otis, rather
angrily, thinking that she had been playing some foolish trick on
them. 'Cecil and I have been riding all over the country looking
for you, and your mother has been frightened to death. You must
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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 Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: owner and sole skipper of a brig that made four voyages annually
between Cockpool and Whitehaven.
"Remember your liberties," rejoined Mareschal, who seemed to take
a mischievous delight in precipitating the movements of the
enthusiasm which he had excited, like a roguish boy, who, having
lifted the sluice of a mill-dam, enjoys the clatter of the wheels
which he has put in motion, without thinking of the mischief he
may have occasioned. "Remember your liberties," he exclaimed;
"confound cess, press, and presbytery, and the memory of old
Willie that first brought them upon us!"
"Damn the gauger!" echoed old John Rewcastle; "I'll cleave him
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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 The Economist by Xenophon: he who would create a spirit of carefulness in others[21] must have
the skill himself to supervise the field of labour; to test, examine,
scrutinise.[22] He must be ready to requite where due the favour of a
service well performed, nor hesitate to visit the penalty of their
deserts upon those neglectful of their duty.[23] Indeed (he added),
the answer of the barbarian to the king seems aposite. You know the
story,[24] how the king had met with a good horse, but wished to give
the creature flesh and that without delay, and so asked some one
reputed to be clever about horses: "What will give him flesh most
quickly?" To which the other: "The master's eye." So, too, it strikes
me, Socrates, there is nothing like "the master's eye" to call forth
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