| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: exclaimed Vasili Andreevich, uttering every word very
distinctly and compressing his lips unnaturally, as he usually
did when speaking to buyers and sellers.
'Really you ought to take him. I beg you in God's name!' his
wife repeated, wrapping her shawl more closely round her head.
'There, she sticks to it like a leech! . . . Where am I to
take him?'
'I'm quite ready to go with you, Vasili Andreevich,' said
Nikita cheerfully. 'But they must feed the horses while I am
away,' he added, turning to his master's wife.
'I'll look after them, Nikita dear. I'll tell Simon,' replied
Master and Man |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: things) how "to learn the art of learning." They go out, search,
find less than they expected, and give the subject up in
disappointment. It is good to begin, therefore, if possible, by
playing the part of "jackal" to some practised naturalist, who will
show the tyro where to look, what to look for, and, moreover, what
it is that he has found; often no easy matter to discover. Forty
years ago, during an autumn's work of dead-leaf-searching in the
Devon woods for poor old Dr. Turton, while he was writing his book
on British land-shells, the present writer learnt more of the art
of observing than he would have learnt in three years' desultory
hunting on his own account; and he has often regretted that no
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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 Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic: to her; but now it was quite a different thing. No one seemed to
take any notice of her, or to feel the least interest in the
great mission she had undertaken. But Katy was aware that it
requires some effort in these days to sell goods, and she must
work; she must ask people to buy her candy.
There was a nice-looking gentleman, with a good-natured face,
coming down the street, and she resolved to make a beginning with
him. He couldn't say much more than no to her, and she placed
herself in a position to accost him. But when he came near
enough, her courage all oozed out, and she let him pass without
speaking to 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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: six feet is what a corpse needs, not a man. And they say, too,
now, that if our intellectual classes are attracted to the land
and yearn for a farm, it's a good thing. But these farms are just
the same as six feet of earth. To retreat from town, from the
struggle, from the bustle of life, to retreat and bury oneself in
one's farm -- it's not life, it's egoism, laziness, it's
monasticism of a sort, but monasticism without good works. A man
does not need six feet of earth or a farm, but the whole globe,
all nature, where he can have room to display all the qualities
and peculiarities of his free spirit.
"My brother Nikolay, sitting in his government office, dreamed of
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