| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: upon the dresser, and looked
suspiciously at the tea-cups. He
wanted his supper of little fat mouse!
"Simpkin," said the tailor, "where is
my TWIST?"
But Simpkin hid a little parcel
privately in the tea-pot, and spit and
growled at the tailor; and if Simpkin
had been able to talk, he would have
asked: "Where is my MOUSE?"
"Alack, I am undone!" said the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: which mostly struck work at the beginning of the revolution,
had almost without exception returned, the younger
engineers in particular realizing the new possibilities opening
before the industry, the continual need of new
improvements, and the immediate welcome given to
originality of any kind. Apart from the question of food,
which was bad for everybody, the social standard of the
workers had risen. Thus one of their immediate difficulties
was the provision of proper houses. The capitalists and
manufacturers kept the workers in barracks. "Now-a-days
the men want better dwellings and we mean to give them
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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 Odyssey by Homer: up quickly from under the seat, and cast off the ox-hide,
and sprang forth and caught Telemachus by the knees, and
besought him and spake winged words:
'Friend, here am I; prithee stay thy hand and speak to thy
father, lest he harm me with the sharp sword in the
greatness of his strength, out of his anger for the wooers
that wasted his possessions in the halls, and in their
folly held thee in no honour.'
And Odysseus of many counsels smiled on him and said: 'Take
courage, for lo, he has saved thee and delivered thee, that
thou mayst know in thy heart, and tell it even to another,
The Odyssey |
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 Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: dying away at regular intervals, as if pausing to draw breath.
All night it blew; and in each pause could be heard the answering
moan of the rising surf,--as if the rhythm of the sea moulded
itself after the rhythm of the air,--as if the waving of the
water responded precisely to the waving of the wind,--a billow
for every puff, a surge for every sigh.
The August morning broke in a bright sky;--the breeze still came
cool and clear from the northeast. The waves were running now at
a sharp angle to the shore: they began to carry fleeces, an
innumerable flock of vague green shapes, wind-driven to be
despoiled of their ghostly wool. Far as the eye could follow the
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